‘Delivered by dad’: man in China calmly follows step-by-step guidance from emergency nurse on phone to help wife deliver baby at home
- A father in China who called emergency to say his wife was giving birth had to deliver the child himself as a nurse gave instructions on the phone
- A recording of the father’s emergency call posted online has had more than 200,000 likes on mainland social media
A man in southern China who calmly helped his wife deliver their child at home with the help of an emergency hotline nurse has trended on mainland social media.
The father, surnamed Kang, called the emergency hotline in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, last month, saying his wife was about to give birth to the couple’s second child, local news site sznews.com reported.
“I have sent out emergency doctors. Don’t hang up. I will tell you what to do next,” nurse Deng Manli told Kang over the phone.
“Don’t impede the birthing process. Ask your wife not to sit on a toilet, but choose the most comfortable position to rest,” she added.
When Kang said his wife was lying in bed, Deng told him to put a pillow under her head.
However, before help could arrive, Kang told the nurse: “The baby is coming out, I can see its head.”
The emergency nurse then told him to hold the infant’s head “gently but tightly” to avoid the baby coming out too quickly.
“You should also firmly hold its buttocks and legs. Its body is slippery. Be careful not to drop it on the floor,” Deng said.
“Now tell me if it is crying or not,” she asked.
After Kang said the baby was not crying and its whole body appeared black, Deng gave him detailed steps to resuscitate the baby.
After Kang blew air into the infant’s mouth and gently pressed on its chest twice, the baby began to cry.
“Good. Let’s check its breathing,” Deng told the father. “You observe its chest. You let me know every time its chest rises and falls, and I will make a record. Shall we start now?”
After they recorded the baby’s breathing twice, emergency doctors arrived at Kang’s home to take charge of the baby and mother just 14 minutes after he called the emergency hotline.
Kang said his wife and baby are both safe and healthy.
“I told myself not to panic. I must do something before the ambulance arrives,” said Kang afterwards.
“When guided by the emergency hotline nurse, I trusted her professionalism and followed her instructions without hesitation.”
Deng said she felt a sense of achievement after hearing the infant’s crying.
“Later, Mr Kang sent me photos of the baby. I feel proud as the baby was delivered safely with my help,” she said.
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A recording of Kang’s emergency call conversation posted online had received more than 200,000 likes at the time of writing on mainland social media.
“I already feel extremely nervous just hearing their conversation,” one person said.
“This father can tell his baby in the future that ‘You were delivered by dad’,” another person commented.
A third person said: “Both the father and the emergency nurse were calm in the hour of peril.”
China’s birth rate has been declining over the past decade. Last year, 9.6 million babies were born in the country, compared with 10.6 million in 2021 and 16.4 million in 2012.
