24 babies born in 24 hours - but staff cope

Jo Lees holds her five-day-old daughter, Tamsin, at their home in Titirangi. Photo / Greg Bowker

Waitakere Hospital staff have delivered a record 24 babies in 24 hours.

The 10 boys and 14 girls arrived at a rate of about one an hour on Thursday, so staff were able to cope, although some mothers went home early or were moved to other facilities.

One of the mothers, Allisa Holbrow-Sheath, had no idea what might have been happening in the Waitakere area to create such a result.

But as a teacher, she said, the timing of daughter Aria's arrival was quite deliberate. "We wanted to plan it just before the holidays."

Another new mother, Titirangi woman Jo Lees, didn't hold up staff for long. She arrived at the hospital about 4.20am and gave birth to her third child, 3.31kg Tamsin, at 4.37am.

She had to wait in the delivery suite until space was available but was delighted to be moved into a "lovely, quiet private room" soon after.

"I was kind of oblivious to all the chaos going on around me, but I was surprised to hear because the level of care was just fantastic.

"They reckon stormy nights put people into labour ... Sudden changes in air pressure put people into labour. All the nurses were saying, 'It's a stormy night; there's always lots of babies on a stormy night."'

Waitemata DHB chief medical officer Dr Andrew Brant said the usual rate was seven births in 24 hours - 24 babies was "a hell of a lot".

"It certainly is remarkable. We don't know the reason why there were so many, it was probably just chance - a blip - but, by far, that's the most we've delivered in 24 hours."

He said nine babies were born in one day earlier this year and the hospital was dealing with more births every year. Staff were delivering about 3000 babies a year, which had risen from about 2500 three years ago.

Asked whether the stormy night could have had an impact, Dr Brant said: "I'm not sure there's a real science behind it."

Waitakere Hospital midwife manager Helen Ngatai described it as a "very crazy" shift. "We all thought it was busy. We certainly knew the next day when we had no linen.

"There was a very quick turnaround in the delivery room. Some parts of the day were very touch-and-go. Women were in labour and we thought we were going to have to deliver in an antenatal assessment area rather than a delivery room.

"We just rallied around to do things that we needed to do to help each other and it all worked out."

The ward of 28 postnatal beds was full, but that had happened before, Mrs Ngatai said. Some women went home early. Others were moved to Helensville and Birth Care in the city.

NEW ARRIVALS

23,155 births per year in Auckland

63, 732 births per year in NZ

Source: Statistics NZ latest data to Sept 2010