Special delivery in Albany sees St John WA crew help welcome baby boy

An Albany mother has welcomed her third child thanks to the help of a St John WA crew.

Jenna Gibellini knew her latest baby was close to arrival, but she never expected him to be born so quickly – or to be born in her bathroom.

Luckily, on May 16, her husband Kyle had decided to stay home “just in case”.

By 7.51am he had called for an ambulance, with Jenna clearly in labour.

Paramedic Gerard Monks and volunteer ambulance officer Lisa Kelder arrived within five minutes, and baby James was born just 10 minutes later.

It was lucky the St John team was there.

Baby James was born with his umbilical cord around his neck, so Gerard, with 26 years of experience in delivering babies as a paramedic, leapt into action.

“Luckily, [the cord] was quite loose, so we passed the baby back through the loop, and then we had enough length on the cord to unwrap it, and the baby became good, and like the colour and everything improved,” Gerard told the Albany Advertiser.

“It‘s one of those situations where you have to resolve it straight away and it is very unusual that you’re able to get the cord off.

“Normally you have to clamp it and cut very close to the throat, so it was actually very good that we had that opportunity to resolve it without cutting and getting close to the skin.”

Jenna and James were then taken to the local maternity unit, with mother and child both healthy and happy.

Since launching in 2023, St John WA’s on-call midwife program has helped advise frontline crews on many obstetrics jobs.

State Obstetrics Referral Call (STORC) is a 24-hour helpline made up of a team of midwives with extensive knowledge of St John Clinical Practice Guidelines.

This team is ready to assist all on-road crews by providing evidence-based best-practice obstetric care instructions over the phone.