Testimony. “This intervention remains the most beautiful”: a Toulouse policewoman helps a woman give birth
By Quentin Marais
Published on
updated on 25 Nov 22 at 12:25
A patrol, flashes of headlights, an ephemeral escort and then the emergency stop on the side of the road: all these stages did not last only a fraction of a minute for Sandie, a 42-year-old municipal police officer in Toulouse. She had, without a doubt, started the day on Wednesday, November 23, 2022 by imagining all the possible scenarios for the next few hours. Except the one that happened : help a woman to emergency delivery, on the boulevard de Suisse. Story of a morning that the forties will never forget.
Calls of headlights
It’s a little past 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday. Sandie, a municipal police officer in Toulouse, is on patrol in the Compans-Caffarelli district. Behind his vehicle, a car multiplies the calls of headlights. “A young woman appears, walks towards me and tells me that his sister is living. This one, aged 22, is in the back seat of the vehicle driven by her companion.
“She allows me to look so that I can get an idea and know if it could wait for an escort“, adds the agent. “I notice that you can see a bit of the baby’s head and hair. He hasn’t come out yet but he’s about to do it. I myself have two children, so I know a little about how it goes. »
The future dad then tells the police that the GPS announces a 6-minute journey to Purpan. ” He asks us to escort them to pave the way for them. We called in several vehicles that were near where we were to make it easier for us to get through,” explains Sandie. Vehicles consume the road to the hospital…until many new calls headlights do not intervene.
Little Erwan is coming
At the level of the Ponts-Jumeaux, “the dad overtakes us at a whirlwind and throws himself into a bus lane, boulevard de Suisse. We understand that if he stops there, there is a problem“, beware the forties.
She opens the door and “sees that baby’s forehead has already come out”. Then you have to go up a gear. Sandie asks for gloves. “I reassure the lady, I tell her that I had children and that I will help him. »
“She has a big contraction and pushes. I support the baby’s head. Everything happens naturally, I follow the movement. On the next push, I tilt my head down a little so that a shoulder passes, and then I proceed in the other direction, the second shoulder passes. I lower my hands to welcome it at the level of the torso, I grab it, and I pull to finish the deliverance.”
What followed will be a succession of relaxations: “the umbilical cord is not wrapped around the baby’s neck, it is in its place as an extension and connected to his mother. But he did not move and did not cry. I rubbed his back, patted him a little, and tilted my head down so he wouldn’t absorb any liquids he had in his mouth. And he started screaming, his color changed immediately in my hands. Everyone was relieved.”
The new mom’s sister is… 7 months pregnant
And when it was necessary to cut the umbilical cord, it was a fellow police officer of Sandie, also a volunteer firefighter, who took care of it. ” He had the material, so I gave him my place in the door frame. Another officer had the reflex to note the time of birth on the hand of the new mother’s sister. And the latter, who had avoided the police at first, is also pregnant… 7 months.
Sandie says the police also had to pick her up. ” She felt faint and fell to the ground. My colleges assisted him. The dad ended up with his wife living in, and his sister-in-law in total panic,” smiles Sandie. Everything ended well. “The firefighters arrived at 10:10 a.m. »
She will remember it all her life
When she has to explain, a little more than 24 hours after the fact, the management of adrenaline and stress in such a situation, Sandie recalls that “when you do the job of police officer, cold blood, on the a. We had to act, there was room for action, I had gloves, I just had to help this child get out, I did it”.
The 42-year-old woman also says she is “convinced that if one of my colleagues had found herself in this situation, he would have done so. When you do this job, you are naturally fond of this kind of situation. We have the ability to react urgently! »
“We do a job where we are always called when it is urgent, it is often around attacks, death, people who have just been injured. Significant and serious things in my career, I have plenty. But giving birth to a child, this joy, this positive feeling about this intervention… This intervention remains the most beautiful of the highlights!”
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