By KATEE SHANKS in Whakatane
Some babies just can't wait and are born wherever their mother happens to be.
In the case of one baby girl yesterday, that was in mid-air in a helicopter.
Despite the prayers of helicopter pilot Barry Vincent, the baby could wait no longer and was born en route to Whakatane, 200 feet above sea level and travelling at 60 knots.
Mr Vincent, who flies the Rotorua-based Tenon rescue helicopter, said he was called at 11am yesterday to pick up a pregnant woman from Waihau Bay on the East Cape and airlift her to Whakatane Hospital.
"The woman was already having contractions when we arrived," he said.
He and his crew said a few silent prayers, urging the baby to "please hold on a bit longer", but their pleas went unanswered. The flight to hospital had to be cut short when the mother "very quickly" gave birth approximately 10km from Opotiki. The helicopter landed so the crew could stabilise the 30-year-old and her new daughter but took to the air again a short time later.
"When we got to Whakatane Hospital both mother and baby were comfortable and stable," Mr Vincent said. "I guess it's not something everyone gets to do."
When the Daily Post contacted the Whakatane Hospital maternity annexe a midwife said the woman and her daughter had been taken to Auckland, but she would not release any further details.
Mr Vincent said he and his crew - advanced paramedic Graeme Dalziel from St John in Rotorua and a young woman working with him - had planned for the possibility the baby might arrive on the way to Whakatane. He had flown lower than normal up the East Coast so he would be able to land very quickly if he had to, he said.
"It was a first for all of us," Mr Vincent said.
St John area manager Rob Gardiner said paramedics helped deliver babies at the side of the road about once or twice a year, however, it was unusual to help someone give birth mid-air.
"We are trained for it though."
additional reporting Alison Brown
Baby who couldn't wait born in helicopter
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