Disabled gran who helped deliver daughter's baby (From Harwich and Manningtree Standard)

Disabled gran who helped deliver daughter's baby

12:00am Saturday 4th July 2009

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A DISABLED gran has been nicknamed ‘Nanny Midwife’ after helping her daughter give birth to her premature son on the floor of their living room.

Stephanie Young needs either a wheelchair or two people to help her move because she has osteoporosis, arthritis, a slipped disc and chronic pain syndrome.

But she sprang into action at 4am last Wednesday when daughter Sindy woke up to find her waters had broken four weeks early, at their home in Wilson Marriage Road, Colchester.

Her family phoned the maternity ward and then an ambulance, but by the time paramedics arrived, Stephanie had already helped her daughter give birth to tiny Kailem.

With the advice of the emergency services operator, Steph-anie helped calm down Sindy, 17, and passed on the advice being given to her.

She said: “I tried to overcome the amount of pain I was in to help deliver the little ’un.

“I had never done anything like that before. People see you in a wheelchair and they look at you as though you can’t do anything.

“It was scary, because I had two people depending on me until the emergency services got here.

“The operators were waiting for the first cry after he came out.

“The ambulance drivers were shocked when they turned up to see the baby lying with his mum.”

As Kailem was premature, he and his mum spent the next week in Colchester General Hospital’s special care baby unit, before returning home on Wednesday.

Stephanie said she had nothing but praise for all the emergency services. She added: “The nurses were brilliant. We can’t thank them enough for what they did.”

Sindy said the whole family, including dad Robert, sister Sandie and her boyfriend, Ben Cooper, were proud of Stephanie, who was now nicknamed “Nanny Midwife”.

She added: “I couldn’t have done it without her. I don’t know how she stopped herself from panicking.”

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