‘Granddad would be proud’
Harley Smith has helped birth a few calves but never thought he’d have to play midwife for his own son.
The farm worker’s wife Jayme went into labour with the couple’s first child early on Friday morning and, with Harley’s help, gave birth to Kado in their car on the side of the road.
‘‘It was about quarter to seven and I started getting really strong pains,’’ Jayme said.
‘‘There was no build up or anything to it, it was just straight you’re in labour.’’
She called her midwife who advised her to leave for Taranaki Base Hospital, from the couple’s home in Midhirst, in 20 minutes if the contractions continued.
‘‘We pretty much left straightaway cos they were getting too strong,’’ Jayme said.
However, about six kilometres into the 35km trip Jayme knew they were not going to make it. ‘‘I was just needing to push and I said to Harley take me to mum’s cos she lives in Inglewood and that was the closest spot.’’
As the couple pulled up outside Jayme’s mother’s house their son, who they named Kado Shakur, decided time was up and he was coming ready or not.
‘‘I just jumped out and ran around to her side of the car and went to lay the seat down and the cop pulled up behind us,’’ Harley said.
Constable Clinton Parker, of the Highway Patrol, was preparing to do a routine checkpoint when Harley ran up to him saying his wife was in labour and they couldn’t make it to hospital.
‘‘He came over and by then the head was out,’’ Harley, who was also on the phone to the ambulance, said.
‘‘I gave him the phone while we grabbed this little fella out and laid him on mum.
‘‘I panicked a little bit as soon as I seen his head but when he just came out and he was alright, so I was happy.’’
Once the ambulance arrived mother and baby were taken to hospital to be checked out but the family was back at home within two hours. Harley had made sure he grabbed the car seat as he raced out the door.
‘‘As we were about to leave I just quickly threw the seat in the car because we were obviously going to need it.’’
While Harley said the birth would make a great story at Kado’s 21st, he wouldn’t recommend roadside births to others.
‘‘Definitely not to go through that but you can’t do much about it.’’
A Holden fanatic Harley had bought the Commodore Kado was born in from his late step-father Christopher Yardley.
‘‘He would be so proud knowing his grandson was born in a Holden.’’
News of Kado’s unusual arrival was met with disbelief by some family members.
‘‘I was on cloud-nine, I was stoked, I was in a bit of shock though,’’ grandmother Patricia Yardley said.
Harley’s sister Meka said she was skeptical about the story.
‘‘You see it on TV but you don’t think it’s going to be you,’’ she said.
Parker, who has two children of his own, said he had never experienced anything like it in his 10 years on the job and didn’t expect to attend another one anytime soon.
‘‘This is what makes the job so exciting and rewarding, when you’re part of something like this,’’ he said.
The constable stressed he had just been there to assist.
‘‘It was all the mother, I just ended up being in the right place at the right time.
‘‘The mother did extremely well, especially under the circumstances.’’