Calgary couple praises first responders after baby born 5 weeks early at home

Megan Claxton and Taylor Smyth expected their second child to arrive in January. They called 911 when she went into labour five weeks early. 'I didn't get a chance to thank them.'

A Calgary family is praising first responders who helped deliver their baby boy who arrived five weeks early at their southeast Calgary home last week.

Megan Claxton and her fiancé Taylor Smyth were expecting their second child to be born in the new year. Those plans changed when Megan went into labour early Tuesday morning at just 35 weeks along.

“Around four, four in the morning I was like, ‘OK, I think something is happening,'” said Claxton.

“I packed a bag, but by the time I finished packing the bag about a half an hour later I was like, ‘I’m not going anywhere,'” she added.

The couple called 911 around 4:30 a.m. With emergency crews on the way, operators talked to Smyth about how to deliver the baby in case they didn’t arrive on time; a task he says he was ready for.

“(I) got the towels out and for a couple of minutes there I thought I was gonna have to do it,” he said. “Part of me, I think I was still a little bit asleep so I don’t know if I realized exactly what was going on but it was a pretty exciting situation,” he said.

Calgary Fire and Calgary EMS arrived at the Seton neighbourhood home just minutes after the call. They helped deliver the six-pound baby boy, named Hayes, at 5:32 a.m., just 90 minutes after Megan went into labour.

“They helped deliver the baby safely, thank goodness; (they) made a scary stressful situation much less stressful, less scary,” Claxton said.