Paramedics excited about baby delivery in back of ambulance

Paramedics joked about having to deliver a baby in the back of their ambulance early Monday morning, but didn’t expect they would actually have to do it.

“It’s something you talk about doing, but you never get to do it,” paramedic Cory Kulcheski said.

She and her teammate Keegan Mitchell, with help from their student paramedic, delivered Bryson Roberts at 1:15 a.m. Monday morning, to his mother Brittney Roberts from Sturgeon Lake First Nation.

“We got to the scene and it was pretty apparent that we would probably deliver on our way into town,” Kulcheski said.

“You do so many labours where it’s just contractions the whole time and you get them to hospital and that’s it. This is the first one I’ve done where we got there and the contractions were so close, like bang bang, bang,” Mitchell said, snapping his fingers.

Bryson was delivered on the side of the Highway 3 ramp to Highway 2.

Kulcheski said it happened incredibly fast.

“The head is there and then all of a sudden the baby is there and crying and everybody is happy.”

“It’s a little bit different from the movies, that’s for sure,” Mitchell added.

Kulcheski said it was an easy procedure since they’d had time to prepare and were confident they’d be delivering a baby in the back of their ambulance.

“We had everything ready to go, so everything was very controlled actually. It probably went as perfect as it could go. You’re calm for the family’s sake but on the inside it’s one of those really exciting and special moments,” she said.

Once Bryson was delivered, paramedics cleaned him up and gave him back to Roberts. They said it was a smooth ride after that.

“It was a perfect way to end our shift,” Kulcheski said.