A quick-thinking interpreter managed to deliver a detainee’s baby by cellphone light during a power outage at the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court in Katlehong last week when the woman went into labour in one of the holding cells, reports News24.
The building had been using generators for a week after a substation had caught fire, but the back-up generator went off minutes before a woman charged with assaulting a minor went into labour.
Interpreter Petunia Mathibeli said five minutes after the woman had made her way from the holding cells up the staircase and into the dock, she had started screaming.
The court instructed the bailiff to take her back to the holding cells, and postponed her case.
“The court then told me to go and give her the date for her new appearance,” Mathibeli said, but when she got to the holding cells, the woman was in full labour – in total darkness.
The interpreter sprang into action, requesting gloves, a blanket and other supplies from nearby police officers and crime prevention wardens.
She said she relied on her experience from a similar occasion in 2021 in Kimberley, when paramedics walked her through delivering a baby over the phone.
“I saw the baby’s head was already out, and I panicked but could not show it. It was pitch black down in the cells, and we were relying on phone torches,” she added.
Once the baby boy was out, she said she patted him gently on the back.
“When he started crying, I knew he was alive and okay.” She then wrapped the baby in a blanket, tied the umbilical cord with a plastic glove and ensured the placenta stayed intact until paramedics arrived.
The generator has since been repaired and is currently operational.
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