Shanelle Curtis, partner Tangi Roi and son Xarien. Photo / Peter Meecham
Shanelle Curtis, partner Tangi Roi and son Xarien. Photo / Peter Meecham
Exclusive: ‘He’s coming,’ teen Shanelle Curtis yelled in panic — then her sister spotted a police car ahead.
Giving birth on the side of a motorway during rush hour with a policeman playing midwife is not how Shanelle Curtis expected to welcome her first child.
But that's how it happened - in the back of her sister's van with traffic speeding past and motorists on the Southern Motorwaypeering in.
Ms Curtis, 19, went into labour five days before her due date. When her contractions became closer together, she left her Otahuhu home with her mother and her sister, Julie Moleu, and drove towards Auckland City Hospital, where her midwife was waiting.
Her partner, Tangi Roi, was working in Warkworth and he also headed for the hospital, expecting to meet the women there.
Shanelle Curtis, partner Tangi Roi and son Xarien. Photo / Peter Meecham
As they neared the Mt Wellington exit Ms Curtis knew she wasn't going to make the hospital. "I was yelling, 'He's coming, he's coming, I can't hold it in, I can feel him, it hurts'," she said.
Ms Moleu "freaked out" and then saw a police car ahead in the traffic.
"I thought about flagging him down but he was up a bit further ... in the middle lane. There was heaps of traffic and I was like, 'Oh great'," Ms Moleu said.
Her sister's screams intensifying, she pulled into the bus lane, sped up and tried to get the policeman's attention.
"I beeped the horn and I was waving. I wound the window down and I was yelling to him. Finally he was like 'what?'
"I yelled, 'My sister's having a baby and we don't know what to do'."
Constable Errol Diprose pulled over and immediately got on his radio to call for an ambulance.
But he knew there was no time.
He asked the women to get something soft for the baby to land on and to wrap the infant in after the birth. Then Ms Curtis started pushing. "I didn't care who saw what, that baby was coming out," she said. Ms Moleu and her mother, Carol Moleu, were frantic with worry.
"But he [Mr Diprose] just helped us relax. If it wasn't for him ... " Ms Moleu said. "I'm sure he was freaking out as well, but he kept talking to us and talking to my sister. Thank God for him."
A few minutes later, baby Xarien was born.
"It was really quick," Ms Curtis said. "The policeman seemed like a pro, like he had done it before.
"After baby was out, he wrapped him up and just held him. Then the ambulance rocked up.
"We had been joking about, 'What if I had the baby on the motorway?' I think we jinxed it."
Ms Curtis and Xarien, weighing a healthy 3.6kg, were taken to hospital. Mr Roi arrived about the same time and could not believe what had happened. "We'd like to say a big thanks [to Mr Diprose] for responding fast and delivering him," Mr Roi said.
He was keen for his son to take after Mr Diprose and join the police one day. "I hope he does," he said.
The couple, now home after the birth on July 17, said Xarien was a relaxed and calm baby.
"He's so chilled, he's awesome," said Mr Roi.
Mr Diprose was praised by Police Commissioner Mike Bush for his efforts.
"Errol reassured the woman, advised her on her breathing and helped her bring her new child into the world. He then held the baby safely till the ambulance arrived," Mr Bush said in his regular blog.
"This was a highly stressful incident that posed a very real risk of harm to mother and child. Errol's ability to step up and take control is a great example of the skill and professionalism of our staff under pressure."
Mr Bush said one of the "great things" about policing was the variety of tasks officers were called on to perform each day. "Often completely out of the blue," he said. "And one of the great things about our staff is their ability to rise to any occasion, no matter how unexpected."
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