Lifestyle

What a woman… A pregnant doctor ready to give birth delivers another patient’s baby first

“I just put on another gown to cover up my backside and went down to her room."
Pregnant doctor ready to give birth delivers other baby first

Dr Amanda Hess was pregnant in her hospital room, preparing to give birth to her second child, when she suddenly heard screaming coming from the room next door.

As it turns out, WKYT report that another woman was giving birth and the on-call doctor was out of the building. So Amanda took matters into her own hands and sprung into action.

“I just put on another gown to cover up my backside and put on some boots over my shoes, to keep from getting any fluid and all that stuff on me, and went down to her room,” she explains.

The Kentucky doctor, who happens to be an obstetrician/gynecologist in the US, recognised the patient as a woman from her practice that she had seen just a week beforehand for a final pre-natal appointment.

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“She overheard the nurses preparing for a woman in active labor who needed to deliver immediately because the baby was in distress — that baby was coming and needed help,” fellow physician Dr. Hala Sabry adds.

And she knew just what to do. In fact, Leah says it wasn’t until later that she realised Amanda actually wasn’t on duty at the time she helped her deliver.

“I said, ‘OK, it’s great to see you. Can I push now?’” Leah said. “She was in complete doctor mode. She just heard somebody needed help.”

Because of Amanda’s quick thinking and instincts, she was able to help Leah deliver a happy, healthy 3.6kg girl, not long before giving birth to her own child, also a girl.

“It’s life-affirming that there are these women out there watching out for other women,” Leah said of Amanda. “She has made me feel good about life.”

*This story originally appeared on Woman’s World

For more about the ins and outs of motherhood, LISTEN as host Claire Isaac quizzes Rhian Allen, the Founder and CEO of The Healthy Mummy, on ‘How To Be a Mumpreneur’ in the first episode of our ‘How To Be…’ podcast.

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