Gorgeous little Gemma Hunt has had a challenging start to life – she was born in the toilet! But the toddler from Christchurch doesn’t seem fazed in the slightest.
Her mother Amanda says, “We are lucky. She’s a chilled-out baby despite it all. People just have a bit of a laugh when we tell them her birthing story.”
Nine-month-old Gemma came into the world in the wee hours of September 17 last year. “I woke up at 2am, felt sick and headed for the loo,” recalls Amanda, 35, who’s also mum to four-year-old Zak. “My husband Mark wondered if the fish we had for tea wasn’t cooked properly.”
Amanda went back to bed, but 10 minutes later, she was in the bathroom again. “I heard two strange popping noises and the cramps got worse.”
She immediately phoned her midwife, who instructed the couple to go to Christchurch Hospital. They were getting Zak into the car in the dark when Amanda just had to run back inside to use the loo one more time.
Little Gemma had an unusual birth, but thankfully, the tiny tot is thriving today.
“I had a big urge to push, but it wasn’t like going to the toilet – it was a different kind of pressure. I stood back up and felt a weird lump between my legs. I put my hand down and felt Gemma’s head.”
She screamed for Mark, but it was too late. “Gemma fell out and I caught her between my legs!”
As soon as she cradled her newborn, Amanda noticed that Gemma’s head was an unusual shape. “It was long and narrow, with a point at the back, but I thought it was just because of the quick delivery.”
She took baby Gemma to an osteopath, who treated her and then referred her to a doctor.
Gemma before the surgery, which left a sizeable scar.
Gemma was 12 weeks old when she was diagnosed with sagittal craniosynostosis. It means some of the tiny plates in her skull are fused together so her head can’t expand naturally to accommodate her growing brain.
“If she was born 100 years ago, she would go blind from the pressure on the optic nerves, suffer terrible headaches and possibly die,” explains Amanda. Instead, the sweet baby girl had craniofacial surgery at Wellington Hospital in February to create two fontanelles in her skull.
Everything went well and Amanda says her precious daughter has “blossomed” since the operation.
Gemma’s head with the scar left by her surgery (left) and right, an x-ray showing the fontanelles made in Gemma’s skull so it can expand as her brain grows.
“The day afterwards, she sat up for the first time unassisted, then she began rolling over. Now she’s constantly standing whenever she gets the chance. It won’t be long before she’s crawling – and walking!”
After a whirlwind year, which also saw Amanda and Mark build and move into a new home, and Amanda complete her accountancy qualification, the family is looking forward to putting the dramas behind them.
“Yes, 2016 has been mad,” admits Amanda. “Now we just want to sit back in our new house and just enjoy being a family.”
