AN 11-year-old girl single-handedly delivered her baby sister when her mum suddenly went into labour – then calmly went off to school.
Caitlin Burke sprang into action when mum Tara Knightley’s waters suddenly broke on Tuesday morning.
With the help of ambulance staff on the phone, the cool schoolgirl delivered sister Elsa-Monet, even managing to unravel the cord which was wrapped around her.
Amazingly, Caitlin then went to school for her lessons as usual just hours after delivering the newborn.
Tara’s waters broke within 10 minutes of her partner Daniel Burke leaving their home in Tamworth, Staffs at 5am. So it was down to Caitlin, who is the eldest of five children, to call for the ambulance and guide her mum through labour.
She said: “I was a bit scared and shaky at first because I had never seen anything like that before in my life.
"But when my sister was born I was really happy. I think she’s really cute and I love her very much.
"My friends at school and the teachers were really happy and proud of me. Now I want to be a midwife when I grow up.”
Mum-of-five Tara, 31, spent just over two hours in labour before giving birth at 7.17am.
She said: “Caitlin was just amazing. I find it difficult to put into words just what she has done for me. I don’t know what I would have done if Caitlin had not been there.
"I started getting contractions within 10 minutes of Daniel leaving and my waters broke. I knew that as soon as that happened it wouldn’t be long before the baby was born.
"I told Caitlin to call for an ambulance, and they were telling her what to do over the phone. I was screaming in pain but Caitlin was calm throughout.
"Even the first sight of the baby’s head failed to faze her. When the head was showing, I thought to myself ‘I need to stop screaming because my 11-year-old daughter is seeing me’.
"I couldn’t do what Caitlin has done at my age, let alone at the age of 11. We are all so proud of her.”
No comments:
Post a Comment