A healthy baby girl was recently born at Talbot Lake in an ambulance on the way to Hinton General Hospital.

In the 18 years that paramedic operations manager Paul Kennedy has worked in Jasper, this was just the second baby born during transportation to Hinton despite doing three or four maternity transfers a month.

“It was done the best it could be done,” he said, noting that the father was able to pull behind the ambulance and see the baby straight away.

For Kennedy, the experience is not unique to Jasper as he’s delivered babies in taxi cabs and fire halls.

“That can happen in the city as well,” he said noting that it’s just a decision to stay and deliver the baby, or take the chance and head to the hospital.

“Things just develop at a different pace, you might think you have 45 minutes to an hour, but in that case it was 15 minutes later. You never know for sure if you’re going to have time to get there.”

Since Seton General Hospital in Jasper has been unable to deliver babies, Kennedy said just two babies have been delivered on the road. 

“Both that we’ve done... the mom’s relieved enough at that point, just to get the baby out.”

Kennedy admits there is the potential for complications.

“If something goes wrong during the delivery, there can be some very major complications – mom could bleed, the baby could not be breathing. That’s not something you want to be in the back of an ambulance trying to deal with.”

“It’s a risky thing,” he added.

While there’s the potential for risk on the road, he also pointed out that as there is no operating room at Seton General Hospital, there is still a risk staying and delivering in Jasper.

“If something goes wrong during the delivery and you need a C-section - it’s a bigger picture thing. Do you wait here and deliver it here in the hospital?”

For this pregnancy, and the other baby born on the road, Kennedy was lucky to have a ride-along in the ambulance which meant there was three sets of hands, rather than just two.

“With the three of us, it’s easily handled. If we didn’t have the ride-along it becomes a bit more stressful,” he explained.

According to Kennedy, for complication-free pregnancies like the one at Talbot Lake – which accounts for around 80 per cent of all pregnancies - it’s a matter of pulling over to deliver the baby.

“Then, if everything is well, we go on again.”

If something were to go wrong it would be a matter of waiting until the cavalry arrives.

“It would just mean that we’d sit on the side of the road until units came out from Hinton or Jasper,” he said adding that “we’ve been lucky so far in Jasper that both went quite well and were complication free.”