The police officer is advising pregnant women to take a wide berth of the area after helping in his second roadside birth.
Const Pentelow was on foot patrol in Milton’s main street about 2pm yesterday when he was approached by a panicked man.
"This guy runs over all panicky, saying ‘Can you please help me?’ and he runs back to his car, so I follow him over and say ‘What’s happening?’ and he says ‘My wife’s about to have a baby’," Const Pentelow said.
"She was crowning, so she really was just about to have a baby."
Const Pentelow called to Tokomairiro Training manager Lynda Allan, whom he had been speaking to before the birthing emergency began, to help the woman while he called an ambulance.
"She stepped in and helped out and she deserves credit," he said.
"Whether it sounds old-fashioned of me, I thought it was a bit more appropriate having a woman down that end," he said, laughing.
Within "two minutes", the child was born.
"Luckily for them it was nice and straightforward and all she could say was ‘I wanted the drugs’, but I told her ‘you didn’t need them and did really well’," Const Pentelow said.
"We were just happy we got her a healthy, happy baby daughter."
It was the Cromwell couple’s first child, he said.
By "pure luck", an ambulance on its way to another job passed by soon after and was able to transport the new mother and her child to Dunedin Hospital.
Const Pentelow, who relocated to Milton from Waikato about four years ago and previously was an officer in the UK, and his wife had recently had their first child and he felt prepared for the roadside birth due to that experience and another roadside birth he assisted with in Waihola, about a year ago.
"It’s becoming a bit of a habit," he said.
"It’s almost an annual event for me.
"You need to advise women to take a wide berth of Milton. If they are pregnant, don’t drive through Milton."
