Fitzroy midwives: Cherish, Michelle, Yvette, Lesley with baby Florence, Brooke, Sarah, Orla and Jasmine.

As midwives will tell you, birthing babies is an unpredictable business. So much so that those who can’t wait to be born in hospital have an acronym dedicated to them -  BBA - Born Before Arrival. 

St Vincent’s Private Fitzroy has brand new state-of-the art birth suites but some babies are in too much of a hurry to arrive in luxury. Over the last three years, 14 babies have been BBAs, arriving in the hospital foyer, in a car on the way to hospital or in the carpark. Already this year, there has been one BBA at Fitzroy Private, last year there were four and 2024 was especially unpredictable with nine babies born before arrival.

Amy Gillies has been a midwife on night shifts for 24 years and her vast experience includes providing birthing support to two mothers over the phone last year.

“A couple rang saying they thought the baby would be born in the car before they got to us,” Amy said.

“The phone was on speaker and I could hear the woman say ‘I’ve had the baby’, he said ‘no you haven’t. Then I could hear the baby crying!

“I told them to pull over, put the heating up high, wrap the baby in something warm and to use their other phone to call the ambulance so I could stay on the line.

“I knew the baby was breathing, so focused on getting the dad to keep checking mum’s blood loss and to keep them both warm.  I asked the paramedics to bring them straight to us; I let their OB know and met them in the ambulance bay.” 

It’s a similar situation at St Vincent’s Private Mater Maternity, where Megan Garlick, Birth Suite Nurse Unit Manager says life in her unit is “ridiculously unpredictable”.

In the last five years, 11 Mater Maternity babies were born before arrival, including a record four babies last year. It’s a small percentage, with more than 2,000 babies born at the Mater annually, but still something the team need to be prepared for. A mobile birth kit is on hand, in case the team needs to run to the carpark or foyer.

“It’s similar to an Emergency Department, you never know what will happen next,” Megan said.

“A prospective parent will always ring to say they are on their way, but things can change quickly. I had a mum ring recently, saying labour had started and she was an hour away but there were no problems. Then 10 minutes later, she rang back in full labour. We had to advise her to ring an ambulance to take her to the closest hospital, because there was no way she would have made it in to us to give birth.”

At St Vincent’s Private Toowoomba, Maternity Nurse Unit Manager Melanie Osborne says “there is always a chance for anything to happen in maternity”. 

While there have only been a few Born Before Arrival babies in the regional Queensland unit, you can never rule it out.  

“Birth is unpredictable so we have a birth pack within our Emergency Department, where these those in a hurry enter, just in case.”

Midwife Amy at Fitzroy Private

At Fitzroy Private, Amy says her second BBA last year happened at handover time.

“I had just arrived and hadn’t even taken my jacket off. I answered the phone to a man saying ‘we are having a baby and I don't know what to do’!

“They were at home and a bit panicked, as they could already see the baby’s head. I talked them through it, trying to slow labour down a bit by asking her to get on her back and to breathe rather than push until the paramedics arrived.

“Every time you answer the phone, you don’t know what the situation is going to be. It is unpredictable, but I love it. It’s the best job in the world. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else,” Amy said.

“It’s such an honour to be there at that special moment and support women.”