I delivered our baby on the bathroom floor
FOOTBALL AGENT Phil Korklin put his goalkeeping skills to good use when he was forced to deliver his baby son at the family home.
Mr Korklin became a makeshift midwife when his wife, Katie, unexpectedly went into labour and gave birth on the bathroom floor.
“I was in complete disbelief,” Mr Korklin told the JC. “All I could think was, don’t drop him! Thankfully my goalkeeper training from back in the day came in handy. My coach always said I had good hands.”
Mrs Korklin said: “I wasn’t panicked. My husband is the kind of person who is good in a crisis so I didn’t want to worry.”
When the marketing and communications manager for the Shaare Zedek charity announced she was going into labour last Friday, her husband told her to “calm down” and prepare for a long labour.
But after three hours of contractions, Mrs Korklin knew the baby’s arrival was imminent.
Mr Korklin said: “I told Katie I would get the car ready and we would go straight to the hospital, but she was adamant the baby was coming now and told me to call 999.
“All of a sudden I kicked into action. I had the 999 operator on the phone giving me directions. I was in complete denial that it was happening.
“All I could think about was that the responsibility was on me. If something went wrong I was going to be responsible for my son.”
The couple, who live in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, with their threeand-a-half-year-old daughter, Aimee, followed the operator’s instructions throughout the birth.
Mr Korklin laid towels on the bath- room floor and positioned himself underneath his wife, who was standing up holding onto the sink for support.
The 999 operator told Mr Korklin to hold the baby’s head during the delivery.
“She said I should be careful because he could be quite slippery and not to drop him. We were worried because our bathroom floor was hard. But Katie pushed and it was incredible.”
After only five minutes of pushing, baby Archie Sidney Korklin arrived.
“His head was already out, his whole body from his shoulders to his feet were still in the amniotic sac,” Mr Korklin said, “I’ve read how special that can be but never thought I’d experience it first hand.
“Imagine, a bubble bursting in slow motion, the liquid disappearing within a split second in the most incredible fashion, I still can’t really fathom it.
“At no point did I think ‘yuck’. It was just amazing.”
Paramedics arrived at the house, and, after making Mrs Korklin comfort, her husband cut the umbilical cord.
He said: “We’d just had our carpets done two weeks before. Katie told me where to go to get the sheets and towels so we didn’t ruin them.”
Mrs Korklin said: “I feel really passionate about women feeling empowered and in control with their childbirth so that was really my focus.
“I think second time around you can be more nervous. But because we were at home, I actually think it helped.
“It was comforting, even though what was happening was totally unexpected.
The family were later taken to hospital and discharged with baby Archie on Monday.