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Market-goers help deliver baby at Brisbane's Boundary Street Markets in West End

Updated March 10, 2015 16:25:19

Market-goers have assisted in the delivery of a baby boy at a well-known Brisbane weekend market.

The Knox family welcomed their new son 10 days ago in the Brisbane suburb of West End while attending the Boundary Street Markets.

With no time to get to the hospital, the baby was delivered alongside market stalls and cafes, with market-goers offering shirts and clothing to help during the birth.

The baby's father Andrew Knox told 612 ABC Brisbane's Rebecca Levingston that the delivery happened in less than half an hour.

"We were planning on having a home birth, but we did not really have a clear date on when the baby was due; we were expecting him a week later," Mr Knox said.

When I asked the ambulance officer what was going on, he told me there was a baby about to be born near the German sausage house.

Boundary Street Markets coordinator, David Bostock

"I was at home with our first child and I got a text from my wife at 7:30pm saying that she would be home in 30 minutes. I realised if she could not walk home then she must have been feeling odd."

Mr Knox said a friend he called to pick his wife up urged him to get to the nearby markets.

"My friend told me that her waters had broken and that I had to get there and she would look after our other child," he said.

"I got to the markets at a quarter past eight and an ambulance officer took me to my wife. She was on the ground and said to me, 'we have a boy'."

Both baby and mother are doing well, but the baby is yet to be named.

"We have no name yet as we thought he would be due the following week. We had gone through girls names but had yet to decide on a boys name," Mr Knox said.

"Since it has been an unusual situation, we thought we might think about a name that reflects the circumstances of his birth.

"I asked the ambulance guy what his name was and it was Aaron. We already liked that name so that will probably be his middle name."

A special market moment

Boundary Street Markets coordinator David Bostock said when the ambulance first arrived he thought something bad had happened.

"When I asked the ambulance officer what was going on, he told me there was a baby about to be born near the German sausage house," he said.

"The director of the markets, Fred Drake, held the torch on her [the mother's] face to make sure she was breathing and the baby's head was already out.

"It happened in a very short time, it was just beautiful."

Mr Bostock said market-goers were happy to help anyway they could.

"It was like a multicultural get-together, to help with care and attention for this baby," he said.

"Last weekend I saw shirts and towels hanging on the fence with a handwritten note saying 'thank-you so much for the help in the birth of my baby'. I would like to send her the biggest bunch of flowers."

Helping deliver a baby over the phone

Queensland Ambulance triple-0 communications operator Shelley said she took the call from the mother's friend.

"It was very funny as the friend was so chilled out, I was trying to get through to her that the baby was going to pop out very, very quickly," she said.

"I kept saying to her, 'you need to get in there and see if the baby is coming out, you have to tell the mum she cannot prevent the birth'.

"The friend kept telling me she wanted to get up and was determined to not have the baby in front of everyone."

The operator said the mother moved to a corner so she could deliver the baby quietly.

"Everyone was so calm and the friend was brilliant telling people to get hot water and towels," she said.

"That mum held out until the ambulance officers arrived and the baby was born, the ambulance officers on scene were fantastic as usual."

Topics: human-interest, community-and-society, babies---newborns, west-end-4101

First posted March 10, 2015 11:52:31