VANCOUVER — No child should be born in a grimy alleyway where people inject drugs, but support workers and street people in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside were there for a frightened, expectant mother when it became her only choice.
On Thursday afternoon, Cynthia Bell and Kevin Thompson, peer supervisors at the Maple Overdose Prevention Site in the 100-block of East Hastings, were looking after drug users when someone came into the site and warned them that a woman in the alley had gone into labour. Bell didn’t believe it, until the woman started to scream.
A man in the alley comforted the frightened woman, whose first child was apparently coming weeks early. The hastily assembled birth team laid her down, steps away from a dumpster, while another Maple peer grabbed towels and a man in a tent across the lane gave them his blanket.
Bell, a mother of two adult children, called 911 and the operator sent paramedics while giving her a refresher course on the fundamentals of childbirth. The first step — removing the woman’s clothing — had Bell worried about her privacy, but the baby was crowning and there was no time to waste.
The lane was packed with people using and selling drugs. But when the woman went into labour, they dropped everything to watch a miracle take place, and some couldn’t help but snap a photo or two, Bell said.
“They were telling her everything was going to be OK, and don’t worry, the baby’s OK. They were really calming her down and assuring her that everything was fine,” she said.
“There’s a stereotype to everyone, drug users, but no, they’re human beings like everyone else and have compassion.”
Bell said the birth happened fast, that there was no time to run for more help or to Google instructions for snipping an umbilical cord.
“She was pushing and the baby got stuck … and she was not the proper colour and not breathing, so I yelled to push, and she did, and out came this baby — fast,” Bell said. “I caught it and cleared her throat and she started to cry, so we knew she was OK.”
Bell wrapped the newborn girl in towels and held her tight as paramedics arrived. She said she is used to stopping overdoses, but the birth was the first non-overdose emergency she has faced.
Her training at Maple, however, taught her the importance of proper breathing and of communicating calmly under duress, she said.
Bell said the mother and her daughter “looked good” when the paramedics took over the scene.
“God was looking out for us, for sure, and that baby,” she said. “I don’t hope it happens again, but if it does, I hope it turns out the same.”
B.C. Emergency Health Services spokeswoman Shannon Miller said dispatch got the call about 1:30 p.m. and two paramedic crews cared for the mother and newborn before transporting them to hospital. Miller said B.C. paramedics attended more than 1,500 maternity calls in 2017, and “many” of the births happened outside of a hospital.
Coco Culbertson, the senior manager of programs at PHS Community Services Society, which runs Maple OPS, said the alleyway birth proves the vital need for frontline health and wellness services scattered throughout the neighbourhood’s streets and alleyways.
