When Leonard Fox decided it was time to come into the world at 37 weeks, he wasn’t waiting around on his parents to get to the hospital.
“My waters broke at 9pm but the contractions didn’t intensify until a few hours later,” Corné Fox recalled.
Her husband John called their midwife Nelly Felix who instructed the Swanson couple to head to hospital – where she would meet them.
“As soon as I started to get up to get my clothes on, I immediately knew I wasn’t going to make it,” Corné said.
After informing Nelly they weren’t going to get to the hospital in time, an emergency 111 call for an ambulance was made at 1.50am.
Working from the Integrated Operations Centre in Auckland that night was call handler Gemma Cale.
“I could hear in the background that the mother sounded pretty close to delivering, so I triaged them and brought up the delivery instructions,” Gemma said.
“John was fabulous. He was so calm and followed all my instructions.
“We got to the point where the baby’s head was visible, but there hadn’t been much progress, so I gave a few more instructions (and encouragement) to try and get the little man out.
“With the ambulance crew nearly there and the midwife on her way, it was a race as to who was going to deliver this baby first.”
Corné said John did everything he was told – to the letter.
“I remember John running around getting towels and then doing everything Gemma told him to do,” Corné said.
The thing that stuck out most in John’s memory was when he was told he needed to “catch” his son.
“That’s when in my mind I knew I would be delivering him, and I started thinking about ‘what if he was stuck, would I have to pull him out?’.
“But Gemma was so clear and said I needed to make sure I was holding his head and let my wife push him out. I just kept listening to what she was telling me and following her instructions.”
A 2.13am he was out. Weighing an impressive 3.7kg.
Forty-nine seconds later the ambulance crew arrived and took Corné and her newborn to the Waitakere Hospital Emergency Room.
With their two-year-old daughter Stella sleeping soundly in the next bedroom, John and Corné’s friend arrived just before the birth to babysit.
“Stella didn’t even wake up with all the noise,” John laughed.
A day later she got to meet her baby brother – who was due on 22 June.
“She adores him and has introduced him to all her teddies.”
Settled back at home, the couple said they wanted to reach out to Gemma to thank her.
They sent her an email and photos of Leonard – which Gemma said made her day.
“I got some lovely photos of them all - which is a first for me.
“I have never seen any of the babies that I have helped deliver before, so their email really made my day… and moved me to tears,” she said.
Corné said “I’m so happy Gemma could finally see one of the babies she delivered. We were so very thankful for her that Sunday morning.”
Hato Hone St John baby magnet Gemma Cale has done it again.
“Baby number 19,” Gemma says proudly as she recalled the 111 call on Sunday 1 June which resulted in the birth of Leonard John Fox.
Based at the Integrated Operations Centre in Auckland, Gemma is a proud member of the Hato Hone St John Stork Club. The club is for those call handlers who have aided in the delivery of a baby over the phone.
Every member of the club is presented with a special stork pin.
The 30-year-old has worked for Hato Hone St John for almost 10 years.
She started off in Telecare monitoring medical alarms, but three years ago made the move into communications.
“I wanted to move from Telecare to call handling because I was feeling quite ineffective being the middleman and wanted to "do more" to help people.
“I was also doing my paramedicine degree and felt comms would support my learning better. If I didn't get into the paramedicine course my second preference was midwifery.”
Gemma, who graduated from AUT last year with a Bachelor of Health Sciences - Paramedicine, helped deliver a baby in her very first week as an emergency call handler.
That’s when she decided to start a baby jar to record any future deliveries.
“Blue beads are for boys, pink is for girls, purple is for those who I don’t know the sex of [because usually the parents are a bit stressed] and white is for those born sleeping.”
Gemma said her friends and family are surprised she’s had so many.
“They think it’s wild. They never expected there to be so many babies and remark that they don't think they could do it themselves. They find the idea too stressful.
“I just think my mum hopes it'll make me more likely to give her a grandchild sooner,” she laughed.
For now, Gemma said she would continue her role until she found “one out on the road”.
And it’s one she doesn’t take for granted.
“Most of the calls that come into our centre are not happy ones. A lot of the time we are with someone in their last minutes on Earth. To be there in someone’s first minutes of life is really special.”
If you would like more information on working for Hato Hone St John email our recruitment team at recruitment@stjohn.org.nz or call 0800 ST JOHN.
ENDS
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Hato Hone St John media team