Dramatic birth on front lawn brings neighbours together

Ann-Kathryne Lassguewasn't worried when she started feeling contractions the evening of July 3. The young mother hadexperienced false labour before, andher second childwasn't due for another couple of weeks.

But when the contractions started coming hard and fast, she called her husband to take her to the hospital, just to be safe.

They didn't get much farther than their front door.

"I started screamingbecause of the pain," said Lassgue, who came to Canada from Haiti five years ago and works as a diplomat at the Embassy of Haiti.

"I hugged my husband so he could help me sit down. And the baby just dropped."

'I thought he was dead'

The newborn infant fell ontoa sectionof pavement in front of their home onrue de l'pe, a quiet, suburban street in Gatineau, Que., where busy commuters rarely go beyond waving to one another.

Startled and dazed, Lassgue looked down and feared the worst.

"When I saw his body on the ground, he was just yellow, and in my head I thought he was dead," she recalled. "I told my husband, 'Oh my God, he's dead,' and I just passed out."

The baby's father, George Philippe Jean, was struggling to cope with the escalating situation while also trying to deal with the couple's frightened two-year-old daughter.

'And then I heard, 'Bheep!''

6 years ago

Duration 0:40

George Philippe Jean describes the moment his wife unexpectedly gave birth on their front lawn.

"My wife was holding onto meand trying to sit down. I hear a [noise],I say, 'Oh my God,' andlook down and see something on the [ground]. So I grab it and I saw it was the baby," Jean recalled of thosechaotic moments.

With thepremature baby in his arms, an unconscious wife next to himand a screaming, scared toddler clinging to him, Jean saidhe cried out for help.

Neighbours to the rescue

Down the street, SolangeHabyalimanawas in her kitchen when her children burst into the house.

"They told me there's something wrong with the woman outside, she's screaming," she recalled.

Habyalimanahurried outside, assessed the situation,and began comfortingthe couple's crying two-year-old girl.

Michel Hivon, another neighbour from across the street, called 911 and joinedother neighbours to help in any way they could. They moved a vehicle to make room for the ambulance, and helped keep Lassegue and the baby comfortable.

"I'm just glad I did," Hivon said.

Following instructions from the 911 operator, the residents worked together"like a medical team," according to Jean,to tie off the umbilicalcord and make sure the baby and mother were warm and safe.

Baby's front lawn delivery brings community together

8 years ago

Duration 0:51

Neighbour Solange Habyalimana and father George Philippe Jean say they've formed a lasting bond with their previously unknown neighbours.

Habyalimana, who is from Rwanda,tears up when she remembers how the event turned strangers into caring neighbours.

"I have been here a couple of months.I didn't know them, [or other neighbours]," she said. "But when we were helping, we didn't think about it. We just think to work together to help the mother and the baby. Teamwork."

Five minutes after the 911 call, Gatineauparamedics and firefighters arrived to safely transport the mother and child to hospital. All were pronounced healthy.

'A big family'

A week later, the proud parents beam while holdingGeorge-AlixJean, a healthy baby boy who made a dramatic entrance into the world and brought a neighbourhood together at the same time.

"The only thing we have in common is that we live on the same street," said a gratefulJean.

"But at that specific point it was like it was a big family, it was the human community."

The parents say the experience hasreaffirmed theirbeliefthat people are fundamentally good.

"It's the human basic instinct that came out," Jean said.

"There was no immigration, no where do you come from, no black or white,just a human being trying to help another human being."