Board passer performs emergency delivery in car backseat

Screengrab from Mikko Manalastas’ Facebook page

It was just two days since he got his license number and a week since he passed the medicine licensure exams, and performing an emergency delivery at the backseat of a car was at the bottom of exceptions of this new doctor in town.

Doctor Mikko Manalastas, a graduate of the Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health, took to Facebook on Saturday to share the turn of events that welcomed him to his chosen profession.

Fresh from a “very tiring but fulfilling celebration” the night before, Manalastas narrated how he “froze for a moment” after stumbling upon a “very anxious father” and a “mother crying hard into labor” inside his building’s elevator on Saturday morning.

“I immediately pressed the alarm button in the elevator to inform them that there was a mother in labor and that we needed assistance. I dropped my bags and went up to them and introduced myself. What luck because I wore my Ateneo Medicine shirt today (patay haha),” Manalastas wrote on Facebook.

Asking the couple to remain calm, Manalastas said he asked the father to get his car while he accompanied the mother and asked her about her pregnancy.

“Then like what we do with most mothers, I assured that everything will be okay and instructed her to focus on her breathing but discouraged her from bearing down. Not yet. Please,” he said.

Manalastas said the couple were supposed to go to a private hospital but he decided to perform the delivery “right then and there” as the baby’s head was already crowning. The new doctor said he had to improvise because he did not have the proper materials.

“As soon as her husband arrived, we carried her to the backseat of their car…I asked the mother to refrain from pushing but she couldn’t help it because the pain was too much, and the contractions were getting stronger and longer,” he said. “I grabbed my bag and took out my bath towel (clean and unused) and placed it over the mother’s abdomen. I used wet wipes to clean the area and used the wet wipes as makeshift gloves and waited for the baby’s head to come out.”

Manalastas commended the mother for being “strong and brave,” saying that the baby’s head popped out “with just a few good pushes” as she “listened very carefully” to his instructions.

“She immediately cried and I gave a sigh of relief. I dried her up and kept her warm over her mother’s chest. At this time, the condo personnel arrived with the first aid kit. I had to cut the cord and deliver the placenta. Luckily they had sterile gloves and bandage scissors but there was no clip. I improvised and used the mother’s (sturdy metal) hair clip – the one that bends to close. I used 2 clips to clamp the cord and cut it, and then i delivered the placenta,” he went on as saying.

“After the flurry of events, we exchanged contact details and I told them to go immediately to their designated hospital and just contact me for any other concerns. After 3 hours, I received one of the most heartfelt and sincere messages of appreciation. And of course, a picture of this little angel. You are beautiful Baby Gabriela Ann! It was an honor to deliver such a precious gift from God. Thank you for reminding why I became a doctor – and just how toxic I really am,” Manalastas said.

As of writing, Manalastas’ post has garnered more than 3,700 likes and 500 shares. JE/rga