A SHOPPING centre manager told how "fight or flight" kicked in after she had to help deliver a baby for a customer who went into labour on the steps of the complex.
Josephine Coulter, an assistant manager at Connswater in east Belfast, received a call over the radio saying the "young girl.. sitting on the front steps who thought she was in labour"
She told BBC Radio Ulster security guards had sent for an ambulance and when she arrived the paramedic control centre "were giving some instructions".
"The girl's name was Nicole and she was Slovakian and had no English, which didn't help matters," she said.
Ambulance control told the Connswater staff to take the woman in a wheelchair to somewhere private, place her on the floor and strip off her bottom half.
"It is not something I would do on a daily basis, I was a bit shaken to be honest but I think fight or flight kicked in," she said.
A Polish woman with the mother-to-be helped to interpret for her.
Ms Coulter said ambulance control told them to get towels and a shoe string to help tie the umbilical cord, with a rapid response paramedic arriving in a nick of time.
"He said to me: 'We are going nowhere, the baby is coming'.
"It was all a bit surreal, I don't know how long it was until the actual baby arrived. There was one last big push, her waters broke and out came the little baby. It was beautiful, talk about the miracle of life. It was absolutely amazing. I was a bit emotional.
".... It was a little boy. By this time some of her relatives had gathered outside so we could hear everybody `yo ho-ing and having a big celebration, shouting 'Connswater baby' outside, so that brought a bit of lightness to it.
"It was such a lovely experience.
"...I got to cuddle the baby before the ambulance took the baby and mother away."
