Record births during rocking weekend

IAIN MCGREGOR/Waikato Times

SHAKY START: Israel and Miriam Garcia with their new daughter Amelia, born hours after the earthquake.

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A record 21 babies were born at Christchurch Women's in the 24 hours following the earthquake, making it the hospital's most prolific Saturday.

One Christchurch woman who was in labour at home when the earthquake hit feared she would not reach the hospital in time.

Miriam Garcia, of North New Brighton, said yesterday she had just arranged to meet her midwife when the bedroom began shaking.

"I couldn't believe the timing.

"I had a lot of false labours in the weeks before and I was thinking, `now it's happening?"'

Garcia and her husband, Israel Garcia, were concerned streets would become gridlocked as neighbours left in droves to escape the potential tsunami threat.

It was a "crazy feeling", she said.

"I didn't want to be there, we just had to go."

Her parents called emergency services for advice and an ambulance was sent.

"I'm really glad we did that in the end, because we didn't know what was going to happen next."

The couple was also concerned an ambulance would not be available, but it arrived within minutes.

"The (driver) said that between our call and by the time we got to the hospital, there was still about 35 jobs waiting," Israel Garcia said.

The stress continued when they reached the hospital and found the lift to the third-floor delivery room was not operating.

"The two ambulance guys and Israel had to carry me in the wheelchair up the stairs," Miriam Garcia said.

"I tried walking up the stairs on my own, but contractions were just too close together."

Miriam Garcia said she was grateful to St John for the "special attention".

"One of the ambulance guys said that he had just recently broken both his ankles, so I felt terrible.

"They were champions."

Baby Amelia was born about two hours later, with the midwife just making it on time.

Ambulances were not in higher demand than usual on Saturday night despite the earthquake.

A St John spokesman said the 87 calls received in 12 hours from 6.30pm Saturday was "comparable".

"None of these calls can be specifically linked to the earthquake, but some of the patients have been people who have required some reassurance following their experiences during the earthquake," the St John spokesman said.

First aid teams are working at the Linwood College, Burnside High School and Addington Racecourse welfare centres.

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