Twelve-year-old Gaelan Edwards delivered his baby brother all by himself this past weekend.
Danielle Edwards woke up with labour pains at about 2:15 a.m. at her home in Quinsam Heights Mobile Home Park in Campbell River on Sat. Aug. 20. She rolled over onto her back and realized the baby was crowning, so she called for her eldest son, Gaelan, to come and help her.
Gaelan proceeded to deliver the baby based on knowledge gained from watching informational television shows.
“Just do it like on the doctor shows,” said Gaelan when asked what was going on his mind in the 15 to 30 minutes it took to deliver his baby brother Kaynan.
“You wiggle the baby out, put the baby down, you clamp the cord, you cut the cord, you bring the blanket, and you wrap the baby up and give the baby to mom,” said Gaelan matter-of-factly.
Kaynan is Danielle’s fifth child and she was two days overdue when she went into labour. Although she has a good relationship with the baby’s father, Ken Strong – who now shares three children with Danielle, and moved to Campbell River when Danielle did about two months ago to be close by – they are not romantically involved and live separately. She was home alone with her four children when she woke up with labour pains.
Telling Gaelan to grab the baby by the shoulders as it came out was all she could muster while in pain.
“I wasn’t even thinking telephone, I’m thinking, ‘I’m having a baby,’” said Danielle.
“I couldn’t have done it without him,” she added. “What if I pushed the baby out and my blankets had been bunched? What if I broke his neck, you know, like what if?”
Gaelan knew how to support the baby’s head and neck properly during delivery from watching Discovery Channel and TLC. After Kaynan was born, Gaelan even found a bag clamp to use on the umbilical cord, then cut it and helped remove the placenta.
When all immediate duties were complete Gaelan called Danielle’s friend who took her and her new baby to the hospital.
“It was phenomenal,” said Danielle as she glowed with pride at her eldest son’s achievement.
Strong is proud as well, adding he doesn’t know if he could have done what Gaelan did.
“I would have probably hit the floor or something,” Strong said. “I’m very proud of him. He’s my hero and I told him that.”
Although he had no plans to become a doctor before his heroic act, Gaelan said he is now considering the profession.
“After it happened I was like ‘if I can do this at 12 I think I can do it when I’m 21,’” he explained.
