Breeched Baby Reportedly Born on Floor of Park Bathroom Thanks to Strangers Who Saved His Life
The 1991 cinematic smash hit “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” featured a Moorish character named Azeem who followed the titular bandit into the wilds of Britannia. One scene showed him attending to a woman suffering from a breech birth.
Though most of us don’t think much about an unborn baby’s positioning nowadays, that moment in the movie drilled in just how dangerous it was in the past.
One recent incident out of Oregon serves as a reminder that breech babies can still face terrible risks.
WebMD states that “because the head is the largest and least flexible part of the baby, it’s best for the head to lead the way into the birth canal. That way, there’s little risk that the baby’s body will make it through the birth canal, but the head will get caught.”
When an unborn infant’s head faces upward, it’s called a breech birth. It can come in three different varieties depending on the positioning of the baby’s legs or hips.
However, the danger is pretty much always the same: “Breech babies are at an increased risk of injury and a prolapsed umbilical cord, which cuts off the baby’s blood supply,” the site explains.
According to KPTV, a couple of parkgoers learned about that risk firsthand. It was the evening of June 11 at Blue Lake Regional Park in Fairview, Oregon.
Cousins Nicole Costa and Tina Montalvo had planned on simply enjoying the summer weather. Instead, ear-ringing shrieks sounded from a nearby bathroom.
Likely unnerved, the two walked toward the facilities and into a maelstrom of activity. A man and several of his family members were yelling for someone to call emergency services.
When Costa and Montalvo got into the bathroom, they beheld something shocking: A woman was giving birth — and it wasn’t a normal delivery.
“We heard somebody screaming and we came around and they said the baby’s coming out,” Costa said. “I walked over to the bathroom stall and she was standing there and the baby’s legs were hanging out.”
Woman gives birth to breech baby in park bathroom, with help from two strangers. https://t.co/sgYtIysEkm pic.twitter.com/5zYbgoHF42
— FOX 12 Oregon KPTV (@fox12oregon) June 13, 2019
The half-delivered infant’s legs alone indicated a breech birth. More disturbing, though, was the fact that the baby’s skin had turned blue.
Costa said, “Everybody was standing at the door like he’s blue, he’s blue! And we’re like, we’re trying, we’re trying!”
Montalvo added, “We knew we had to turn him because the way he was, his shoulders were stuck.”
They guided the new mother to the floor and freed the baby, a boy.
However, he still wasn’t breathing. So Montalvo cleared fluid from the infant’s airway, suctioning it out with her mouth.
“He turned pink and he took his first breath and he screamed, and then we knew he was okay,” Montalvo said.
First responders swept the child and mom away, but not before praising the cousins for their bravery.
If not for them, the baby would’ve certainly died. And the mother? Such a delivery could’ve cost her life as well.
The baby’s grandfather, Javier Blanco, praised the cousins, saying, “I thank God they were there. If they hadn’t been there I don’t know what would have happened.”
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