EDMONTON – Little Rosalie Tyler was in a hurry to enter the world. Fortunately, her father jumped to action and helped deliver his baby girl in the car outside a birthing centre on Tuesday.
Brook and Robyn Tyler were expecting their second child, who was one week overdue.
Around 3 a.m. Tuesday, Robyn started to have contractions, but they stayed about 10 minutes apart for nearly 12 hours.
Then, around 3 p.m., she called her husband at work to tell him it was time to head to the Lucina Centre, where they planned to have a natural birth with a midwife.
“She was having pretty severe contractions, but she wasn’t in that heavy of labour when we left the house,” recalled Brook.
“She was having contractions about six or seven minutes apart, so I thought we had time to get there.”
But, as the couple made their way across the city – with their 16-month-old daughter Charlotte in the back seat – it became increasingly clear the baby was coming fast.
“Then we got to Mayfield Common and my water broke, and I thought ‘oh no, she’s coming quick.’”
“Everything’s kind of a blur after that.”
They made it to the Lucina Centre – but only just.
“I skidded to a stop, I hopped out, and I ran to the other side,” said Brook.
“Robyn stood up and she said ‘I don’t think I’m going to make it, the baby’s coming, I can feel the head.’ So I look down at her pants, and I could see the head poking out of her pants.”
“I just pushed her down into the passenger seat of the car, and she leaned back across the console and… as soon as I got her pants off, I could see the baby’s head.”
“I just reached down and I grabbed Rosalie’s head and I just caught her as she came popping out.”
“She came so fast,” he added. “I just got a hand on her head and she just flew out right into my arms. It was almost like a football catch.”
“I was actually quite stunned,” recalled Robyn, “because I was lying there, and I had this baby – Rosalie – on my chest.”
Brook gave his new baby a quick once-over, and then ran into the midwives’ centre.
“I called out – I said ‘hello.’ And I heard the midwives say ‘hello.’ And I said ‘my wife just gave birth in the parking lot.’”
Two midwives and another staff member quickly joined Brook at the door.
“We all ran back to the car and Robyn was just laying in the car cuddling Rosalie.”
Looking back, Robyn calls the delivery “a good experience” but admits it didn’t happen the way they had planned.
“We did everything by the book – we went at the right time… but that just goes to show you never know – when they want to come, they want to come.”
As for the dad, Brook says he simply did what he had to do.
“I don’t know how calm I was – it was really a blur – I just kind of went into action. When I knew the baby was coming, I didn’t really have time to think.”
“I knew that the baby was coming ready or not.”
Rosalie Tyler was born at approximately 4:25 Tuesday afternoon. The new arrival weighed six pounds, nine ounces, and measured 19 inches.
Both mom and baby are doing very well.
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