Dad delivers ‘Happiness’ during Beryl’s fury

While the menacing winds from Hurricane Beryl's outer bands violently crashed against the side of his house in Ocho Rios, St Ann, Daniel Logan calmly reached for his shiny bread knife, a cigarette lighter and an empty Dragon Stout bottle.

His common-law wife, Mizira Mitchell, had just told him that water was flowing in the house and it was not due to a leaking roof. Mitchell, he said, had gone into labour, shortly after the storm began, and he had no means of taking her to the St Ann's Bay Hospital, located about 30 minutes away by car, to have their baby delivered.

"I didn't panic," Logan told THE WEEKEND STAR as he related the heart-pumping ordeal of delivering his own child at home during the hurricane on July 3.

"I took one of the silver bread knife and I use one of my lighters and warm it up in order to sterilise it," he said.

The couple's two children were in a bedroom by themselves sleeping. Logan sought to reassure his partner that she had no need to worry. Her due date was July 27, but the baby decided to come early. Logan quickly prepared the 'delivery room', but not before placing his phone in the best possible location to record the moments.

"She tell mi seh she feel the baby a come, so I took off her clothes and let her lay down, and after about four pushes, the baby born," Logan said.

Baby Fayola, who they have nicknamed 'Happiness', made her grand appearance at 6:38 p.m. She weighed three kilogrammes (approximately 6.6 lbs).

It was the second time that Logan had to play 'midwife' for the delivery of his child. In 2020, they were on their way to their Warsop, Trelawny, house when Mitchell's water broke.

Logan laid his partner on the ground, next to the dusty pathway, used his shirt and handkerchief to make a bed, and Mitchell's handbag as pillow. He then delivered their baby, Veronica, in the open. The baby was nicknamed 'Survivor'.

"I don't know why it happened again, but I am just happy that everything was okay," Logan said.

The father told THE WEEKEND STAR that the experience of 14 years ago helped him prepare for the unexpected arrival of 'Happiness'.

"The first baby that I delivered, the doctor said I did a good job, but I made two mistakes. I cut the navel string short and I didn't tie, so I let air get in it and the blood was running down so she had to go in an incubator. This time I cut the string [using the bread knife] in the middle so it was even, and then I cut a piece of cord and tie the navel string," he said.

But his job was far from over as the placenta was yet to be removed. If the placenta is not removed, this can lead to severe infection or life-threatening blood loss for the mother. Alert to the risk, Logan came up with a way to have it expelled. He wrapped the newborn baby in one of his shirts and immediately turned his attention to securing the health of his partner.

"When mi first daughter born, mi never get to take out the afterbirth (placenta) and the doctor told me that the result could have been deadly," he recalled.

"Mi have a Dragon bottle and mi clean it off and tell her to blow in it, and while she was blowing, I was kneading her stomach like a flour mi a make, and mi see the afterbirth jump out," Logan said.

The next day they visited the St Ann's Baby Hospital where Logan said doctors told them that the newborn was in excellent condition. Both mother and child were discharged later that day.