Olivia comes home delivered

By Elizabeth Lillis
BUNYIP mother Suzanne Squires received the surprise of her life when her daughter, Olivia was delivered on the floor of her parents’ lounge room earlier this month.
Mrs Squires woke at 11.40pm on Monday 5 February, experiencing her first contraction.
She began to prepare for the birth by taking her threeyearold son Alex to her parents’ home, also in Bunyip.
“By this time by contractions were already two minutes apart. Scott (her husband) called 000 and they advised to put me on the lounge room floor, minutes later I was pushing,” she said.
Mrs Squires said her husband and parents Dot and Peter Smith played midwives as the birth unfolded.
“My sister Kylie paced the hallway and my brother Shane waited for the ambulance on the street corner. Mum later told me Shane could hear me screaming.”
Mrs Squires said her father boiled the kettle during the drama.
“He was not quite sure why he did it, he said he was just copying the movies,” she said.
The ambulance arrived at 12.15am and beautiful Olivia was born at 12.17am on 6 February.
Baby Olivia Kylee weighed five pounds and six ounces at birth.
Mrs Squires said although the experience was ‘a little frightening’ she loved the fact she was born at her parents’ home and the labour was only 35 minutes.
“She will always have the story to tell,” she said.
Mum and baby were taken to Casey Hospital by ambulance and stayed in care until Thursday, 8 February.
“My son, Alex slept through the whole thing,” she said. “Mum and Dad spent the next day cleaning the carpet, which has come up as good as new.
“They are over the moon that they got to experience their daughter giving birth to their granddaughter and only have to look down at the carpet as a reminder,” Mrs Squires said.
The lounge is now known as the “family room”.