Snow Patrol
There are community halls, community pubs and community shops. Now it could be claimed the remote village of Balgedie near Kinross in Scotland has a community baby, after local residents rallied around to help a woman give birth to a baby boy. Cut off by the snow, Ashleigh Lisa was trapped in her house when she went into labour in the middle of the night. Unable to get to the hospital and with time fast running out, Ashleigh’s sister posted an emergency message on Facebook for help. It worked a treat, as local farmers answered the plea by offering to take off-duty mid-wives to Ashleigh’s house on their tractors. Emma Niven, whose husband Rob was one of the first to jump into his tractor, revealed how help arrived just in time: “It’s just been the most magical morning. An emergency message went out on Facebook looking for midwives for our neighbour who was in the late stages of labour and was stuck. We just couldn’t get her out and nobody could get to her so we got the tractors out and negotiated a couple of midwives and brought them to her just in time at a critical stage where the baby’s head was actually stuck. So all has turned out well but oh my goodness what a morning.” Bronda Henderson, the baby boy’s grandmother who made it to her daughter’s house by tractor, reveals just how much of a community effort it was: “I can’t believe it’s happened but mother and baby are doing fine. We have two midwives here and our neighbour who is a doctor and everyone in the community has been fantastic. All the farmers and neighbours in the area have cleared roads and fields to get here. Its been absolutely amazing and I can’t thank the community enough, they have been fantastic. I’m just relieved my daughter and my new grandson are OK and grateful to everyone around who tried so hard to get help here this morning, just remarkable.” A very grateful Ashleigh posted a message on Facebook: “Wow! I am absolutely blown away by you all! What an incredible community we live in!…Thank you to our amazing neighbours, friends, midwives, ambulance and police services who walked, dug and ploughed their way to us!” How about that for community spirit?