Viral
9-Year-Old Girl Stepped In To Deliver Her Baby Sister When Her Mom Went Into Labor At Home
“It was fun! She looked really pretty.”
Angelica Gunn was at home in Belton, Missouri with her two kids when she suddenly started to experience labor contractions. Fast. The nurse and certified doula told Good Morning America that she had been experiencing false labor pains for a few days, so she initially wasn’t worried. Until she felt that primal need to push. Alone, at home, with her two children and her husband at work. At which point, Gunn’s 9-year-old daughter stepped in to help deliver her baby sister at home like a little doula in training.
Gunn wasn’t due to deliver her third baby for another week, so she was initially surprised by her contractions. “Then midday the contractions just kicked in really hard,” Gunn told Good Morning America. “I felt the urge to push all of a sudden.” At which point, she knew she would have to enlist the help of her 9-year-old daughter Aakayla, despite the fact that she was worried she was too young to deal with such a monumental crisis.
“I screamed for Aakayla to come in,” the mom of three told KMOV St. Louis. “I was just like, 'You have to look, something’s happening, is her head coming out?’ She said, ‘I can’t look,’ and I was like, you have to.’”
Aakayla looked and saw her baby sister ready to be born. “It was fun!” the sweet little girl told KMOV ST. Louis. “She looked really pretty.”
A 9-year-old girl delivered her baby sister.
Delivering a baby at home unexpectedly with no trained medical professional help is a harrowing prospect for even the most well-prepared adult. It’s something that only happens to approximately two out of 1,000 pregnant people, according UT Southwestern Medical Center. So the fact that this little girl held it together is truly incredible.
Fortunately for Aakayla, her mom’s instincts as a nurse and doula kicked in and she was able to coach her daughter instructions through her contractions. She brought her mom towels, and when her baby sister Aubree was born three hours later, Aakayla was the one to catch her and hand her to her mom. A stunning act of courage and love.
“I think in that moment she realized, 'OK, it's just me and mommy. I'm going to have to help her because daddy's not here,’” Gunn told Good Morning America, as her husband was on his way and stuck in traffic. “It's kind of just amazing how she did that. She didn't cry, she didn't freak out or anything.”
Paramedics arrived to take over, and baby Aubree is doing fine. And Aakayla now has a great story to share with her little sister for years to come.
