One of the craziest things about being pregnant is that your water can break at any time. You could be cooking up ramen in the kitchen as a midnight snack or going for a brief morning jog, and next thing you know, your body is informing you that you’re about to have your baby!
For 28-year-old Rhys Darby and his 24-year-old pregnant girlfriend Jade Brown, that’s exactly what happened: Jade’s water broke at an unexpected moment. Last summer, the Sunderland, England, couple was shocked when they discovered their baby girl Ariana was arriving in the middle of the night. Next thing you know, Rhys, who was currently recovering from a broken hand due to a football injury, was helping his girlfriend deliver their baby!
“I had the cast on one hand and a phone in the other—trying to deliver a baby!” Rhys said. “I was running around trying to find towels while the woman on the line was trying to give me instructions.
Rhys was frantic while he was waiting for the ambulance to arrive, but then it happened: out popped Baby Ariana.
“I bent down and stuck my hand out and the baby just came out. The ambulance arrived two minutes later and they cut the umbilical cord. I said: ‘It’s alright—I’ve done your job for you!’”
“It’s funny—Jade was adamant in the run-up that she didn’t want me near the business area during the birth,” he said. “I should have brought my baseball glove—then it would have been fine! But it was quite scary.”
The couple was completely baffled by the early arrival of their daughter. Jade had gone to the hospital the previous day thinking her little one would be soon to arrive, only to be sent home.
“We were told to come back at the next afternoon if nothing happened and they would start her off, so we went home. Jade tried to get some sleep, but by 2 AM, the pain was overwhelming,” Rhys recalled.
Then things got real.
“I was trying to just breathe through [the contractions] but they were getting more intense so I went downstairs and sat with Rhys,” Jade said. “I was squeezing his hand every time I got a contraction, but as time went on, I couldn’t cope with the pain and told Rhys we needed to go to the hospital.”
It seemed like once it all happened, it went by so fast, giving Jade and Rhys hardly any time to react.
“After a few pushes, our baby girl Ariana was born on the settee. I remember lying with her on my chest and I couldn’t believe how quick it all happened.”
According to Rhys, Jade didn’t have pain relief except for “a couple of paracetamol and some gas and air in the ambulance.”
Although Rhys didn’t get the chance to cut his daughter’s umbilical cord like he wanted, he’s thankful the labor process went relatively smoothly.
“Apparently we were quite lucky. Lots of stuff could have gone wrong. Ariana is a miracle, really. She was conceived two months after Jade had a miscarriage,” he admitted.
Jade, too, was also grateful and even more so knowing that the love of her life got to be apart of the experience.
“I was so glad that Rhys got to be so involved with the birth of our baby girl and I am so proud of him for delivering her—especially with a cast on his arm,” Jade said. “He was amazing during and after the birth and he’s an amazing dad to Ariana,” Rhys finished.
Congratulations to the new parents! Check out the beautiful family of three below.