Police save baby delivered in toilet

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This article was published 15/12/2009 (5863 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An emotional mother is thanking Winnipeg police for saving her baby boy’s life after she unwittingly delivered him while on the toilet.

Heather Richard, 33, had been in pain all Sunday morning. She said she had no idea she was even pregnant until she was staring down at her pale and motionless newborn son at the bottom of the toilet.

"I didn’t know what it was at first. I thought it was my intestines. I thought I was dying. I was on the phone to the police and I suddenly had pain ripping through my body. I went to the washroom and when I looked down, there he was," she said.

Richard screamed for help. The woman’s 15-year-old cousin Keith Richard came running to the bathroom and found Heather crouched over in pain.

"She was screaming at me to help get her baby out of the toilet. I didn’t know what to do," Keith said, quietly. "I just walked away."

Two Winnipeg police officers, who were already there on an unrelated matter, heard the screaming and burst into the bathroom. One of the officers started to perform CPR and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

"(The female officer) grabbed my baby and started to pump up and down on his tiny body. When he started to cry, it was the best thing I’ve ever heard," said Richard her voice cracking with emotion.

"I just want to thank her. She brought my boy back. She gave him a chance at life."

Heather said her new son — at four pounds, nine ounces and 18.5 inches long — is healthy and breathing on his own, but he did sustain a small skull fracture when his head hit the bottom of the bowl.

Heather said they are keeping him in observation until the weekend, but she has no doubt that he will pull through just fine.

"He’s feisty just like his mom," she laughed. "He’s got a bit of red in his hair and a strong spirit. He’s a fighter."

Heather said she’d like to call her boy Isaiah. He’s her first child.

"I’m so overwhelmed. My family cannot believe it," she said. "My brother was supposed to give my mom her first grandchild, I guess I beat him to it."

britt.harvey@freepress.mb.ca