Just a week after passing the national Medical licensure exams, new Doctor Mikko Manalastas was stunned when faced with the task of delivering a baby in the backseat of a car.
He took to Facebook to share his awe-inspiring experience. He recounts how, he “froze for a moment” when he spotted a “very anxious father” and a “mother crying hard into labor” inside the elevator of his building on October 1, 2016.
“Then like what we do with most mothers, I assured that everything will be okay and instructed her to focus on her breathing but discouraged her from bearing down. Not yet. Please,” he recalled in his Facebook post.
Despite the couple’s plan to rush to a private hospital, Mikko knew he had to deliver the baby because he was already “crowning”.
But he quickly snapped out of it and pressed the emergency button to call for help. “I dropped my bags and went up to them and introduced myself. What luck because I wore my Ateneo Medicine shirt today (patay haha),” Mikko, who’s a graduate of the Ateneo School of Medicine, wrote on Facebook.
He then asked the couple to remain calm before instructing the dad to fetch his car as he watched over the mom who was in labor.
Read more about this awesome birth story on the next page!
“As soon as her husband arrived, we carried her to the backseat of their car…I asked the mother to refrain from pushing but she couldn’t help it because the pain was too much, and the contractions were getting stronger and longer,” he narrated.
Not having any of the necessary tools and materials on hand, the resourceful new doctor had to improvise. “I grabbed my bag and took out my bath towel (clean and unused) and placed it over the mother’s abdomen,” he wrote. “I used wet wipes to clean the area and used the wet wipes as makeshift gloves and waited for the baby’s head to come out.”
After “just a few good pushes”, the baby’s head slid out. Mikko lauded the new mom for being “strong and brave” and for listening very carefully to his instructions.
In an interview with Rappler, Mikko confided that he was so relieved when he saw the baby turn pink and heard her first cry. He recalled how the new parents shed tears of joy.
The baby girl and her mom were then brought to a nearby hospital for further care.
Later on, the grateful parents sent him a sweet thank you message; enclosed was a picture of their baby girl.
“You are beautiful Baby Gabriela Ann! It was an honor to deliver such a precious gift from God,” he wrote on Facebook.
theAsianparent has since reached out to Mikko and we are currently awaiting his response. Check back here for more updates!
READ: Woman gives birth on plane during 9-hour flight to Manila from Dubai
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