Baby born in ambulance, grateful Mississauga parents thank paramedics
Published January 9, 2023 at 12:38 pm
A Mississauga couple is praising the work of paramedics after one of the most stressful moments their lives – the unexpectedly quick arrival of their first baby.
Nadia Ramasawmy and her husband Zane Malik were expecting their first baby on Sept. 29 this past fall but their baby boy, Zahyd, had a different plan.
“My entire pregnancy had gone by pretty smoothly,” Ramasawmy tells insauga.com.
And everything leading up to the morning of Monday, Sept. 12, 2022, was normal. Saturday they hosted a dinner and the next day they stayed home and relaxed.
“Funny enough we watched a movie on Netflix called ‘Fatherhood’ the night before Zahyd was born!” Ramasawmy says.
But shortly after Ramasawmy woke at 6 a.m. that Monday she had bad cramps. Her husband asked if she wanted to go to the hospital.
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“I hesitated because I thought I was having what they call ‘Braxton Hicks’ contractions and I thought the hospital would send us back home,” she says.
So, instead, they waited. It is very rare for a first child to be born quickly in what is known as precipitous labour and delivery (labour and delivery in under about two to three hours) and even as the pain continued Ramasawmy didn’t believe the baby would arrive so soon.
“An hour or so had gone by, and by this time I was in so much pain,” Ramasawmy says “My contractions were so close together that my husband couldn’t even keep track using the timer on his phone. At this point, I still did not think I was in actual labour and having contractions given the fact it was my first baby.”
But then they realized Ramasawmy was in so much pain, she could not get up from the bedroom floor.
“That’s when my husband decided to call 911.”
The 911 operator instructed Malik to try and get Ramasawmy on the bed but she couldn’t move.
“Right then and there I heard and saw my water break!” she says. “Minutes later I remember the four paramedics (Shaun, Matt, Oliver and Marc) entering our condo unit and wheeling the stretcher in our bedroom. They helped get me off of the floor and onto the stretcher and reassured me everything would be OK.”
Both Ramasawmy and Malik were very relieved to see the paramedics.
She was still screaming in pain as they were leaving the condo unit on the way to the elevators — it took just minutes to get to the ground floor.
Ramasawmy thought they would make it to Mississauga Hospital since it was only about seven minutes away.
“The paramedics got me into the ambulance and seconds later I felt my son being born on the stretcher in the ambulance at 8:08 a.m.!” she says. “The ambulance hadn’t even started moving yet, we were still parked outside my condo building. I remember screaming frantically for my husband.”
During this very short time, Malik went to get the car from the underground parking garage and was going to meet Ramasawmy at the hospital.
“As he was pulling out of the garage he happened to look left and saw the ambulance was still parked outside our condo,” she says. “He couldn’t understand why we hadn’t already left to go to the hospital.”
He decided to turn around and see what the hold up was.
“My husband then knocked on the ambulance door and when the paramedic opened the door, he said to my husband ‘say hello to your son!'” Ramasawmy says. “We were both in utter shock with tears in our eyes. We couldn’t believe our little baby boy had just been born.”
Ramasawmy was glad to see her husband.
“I was so relieved to see my husband in the ambulance and that is a moment I will cherish forever with my son Zahyd resting on my chest,” she says.
When they arrived at the hospital, Ramasawmy’s mother was there. Malik had called her to let her know what was happening.
“She was very emotional and crying,” Ramasawmy says. “It was a very special moment as I was on the stretcher with my newborn son and seeing my mother.”
Zahyd is a healthy baby boy despite being born 17 days early. He weighed five pounds 10 ounces.
“He is a very happy and active baby,” says Ramasawmy.
The family of three visited the paramedics to say thank you in October, and Peel Paramedics recently posted about the experience on Instagram.
“I told my husband I really wanted to thank the paramedics who helped us that day and ultimately saved my baby and I,” Ramasawmy says. “My husband started doing some digging on social media, and before we knew it we had a meeting set up with the paramedics!”
They toured the station, got pictures inside the actual ambulance Zahyd was born in, ambulance 3232, and chatted with the paramedics who helped. Paramedics gave Zahyd a stuffed moose toy.
“We are so appreciative to Shaun, Matt, Oliver and Marc for all their efforts,” she says. “That was definitely the most stressful day of our lives and knowing we were in great hands made us feel safe. We want to thank them a million times over for their service and everything they do for keeping people in our community safe every single day!”
It was also a memorable day for the paramedics.
“For us paramedics, ‘hot’ calls like this can be scary, too,” Peel Paramedics say in an Instagram post.
“It’s not every day that we encounter these situations but we understand the gravity of what we find ourselves in, like delivering a baby while anticipating all the things that can possibly go wrong and how to treat it. Paramedic Shawn echoes this saying: ‘Delivering babies can be the scariest and greatest moments in a Paramedic’s career and you suddenly go from being responsible of one patient to two…It’s an amazing and rewarding feeling to bring life into this world.'”
For Ramasawmy and Malik, this is a story they will be telling for a long time.
“This birth story is definitely one you cannot forget and what’s more interesting is Zahyd will have this story to tell his friends as he grows older,” she said. “He will have the story, the pictures, the videos and even a little moose teddy bear keepsake from the paramedics!”
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