SINGAPORE – As a postnatal nurse of nine years, Madam Afifah Rizqin is no stranger to childbirth. But little did she expect she would deliver her own baby, much less in the back of a Grab car on a fateful November morning.
At 4.40am on Nov 6, about a week before her expected due date, Madam Rizqin, 30, who was 41 weeks pregnant with her second child, instinctively felt it was time to give birth.
She had been experiencing Braxton Hicks contractions, sometimes called practice contractions, in the days before, but was now experiencing contraction pains similar to the ones she felt during her first child’s delivery.
Some time after 5am, she and her husband, Mr Syazwan, decided to book a Grab ride from their flat in Ang Mo Kio to the hospital as the contractions had become more regular and painful.
The couple initially planned to drop off their three-year-old daughter at her grandmother’s house, but eventually decided to head straight to the hospital as Madam Rizqin felt the “urge to deliver” in the HDB lift lobby, said Mr Syazwan, 32.
Their ride arrived at around 5.20am, and they were barely on the CTE en route to KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) when they realised their baby was crowning and so, very close to being born.
“Thank God it was our second child. If it was the first, I would have panicked and known nothing about giving birth,” said Mr Syazwan.
“My wife was in panic mode. Instead of pushing, she told me to pull my baby’s head. I remained calm and told her to push instead.”
In just two pushes, out popped their baby girl in the back seat of the car.
Madam Rizqin said: “I have some experience with babies and mothers. I was quite comfortable with delivering my own baby, if there were no complications or issues.”
But their newborn was neither crying nor moving upon delivery, and was a little blue in the face.
