Record number of babies born after quake

The Christchurch quake led to a record number of baby births at Christchurch Hospital.

Twenty-one babies were delivered, the most ever for a Saturday.

New Brighton woman Miriam Garcia was in labour when the earthquake struck at 4.36am on Saturday.

She told The Press that she just arranged to meet her midwife when the bedroom began shaking.

"I couldn't believe the timing. I had a lot of false labours in the weeks before and I was thinking, `now it's happening?'"

Ms Garcia's parents called emergency services for advice and an ambulance was sent.

"I'm really glad we did that in the end, because we didn't know what was going to happen next," Ms Garcia said.

The couple was also concerned an ambulance would not be available, but it arrived within minutes.

Ms Garcia said she was grateful to St John for the "special attention".

Baby Amelia was born about two hours later, with the midwife just making it on time.

Baby born in midst of quake

My daughter was admitted to ChCh Woman's hospital on Friday ready to give birth. She was in labour for a very long time without any drugs, and by about 4.15am on Saturday the midwife decided to call in the help of the doctor on call. They made the desicion to help her with suction and the moment the doctor came in with all the instruments, my daughter started pushing again and the earthquake hit the moment baby's head crowned. She was fully born 4.41am. It was extremely scary the whole room swayed, her bed went from one side to the other, the birthing pool's water came like a tsunami spilling all over us. But I would like to thank God for helping us all, for giving us a beautiful wee girl and we want to thank her midwife and doctor for standing by through all the scare.

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