Father delivers baby using instructions found with Google

December 11, 2009 by Shawn Douglas
Filed under: News

Father Leroy Smith was forced to help his wife give birth at home and resorted to using Google to find guidance.

Leroy Smith, of Leytonstone, East London, was home alone with his wife, Emma when she started having contractions. Leroy franticly called the midwife, who had been to their home earlier that day. But before the midwife arrived, Emma began the birthing process.

Leroy Smith told The Sun: “The midwife had checked Emma earlier in the day but contractions started up again at about 8 p.m., so we called the midwife to come back. But then everything happened so quickly; I realized Emma was going to give birth.”

Unsure what to do, Leroy picked up his BlackBerry, navigated to the Web search engine Google and entered in the search term “how to deliver a baby.” The most relevant result for Leroy was an entry on Wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia.

Using the information he found on the site, he helped his wife deliver 6-pound, 11-ounce daughter Mahalia Merita Angela Smith.

“The BlackBerry told me that when I saw the head, I had to support it,” Leroy Smith told The Sun. “And when the baby actually comes out, I had to place her on Emma’s chest, then covered them both with a blanket and make sure they were both comfortable and relaxed.”

The midwife arrived about five minutes later and praised Smith for his work. “She clamped the umbilical cord and I cut it,” he said.

“I couldn’t believe I had done it and Emma was such a soldier, no pain relief or anything,” he added.

Afterwards, Emma Smith said she was glad for her husband’s quick thinking. She told The Sun: “It’s incredible that Leroy delivered our first daughter. The other three are boys. I said to him ‘you’re Leroy Smith, you can do anything’. I had wanted a home birth anyway.”

“He was incredible,” she said of her husband.