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Thursday 16 Nov 2017

First baby born at Waterloo station

Region & Route:

Southern: Wessex

| Southern

A bit of history has been made at London Waterloo with what is thought to be the first ever baby, a boy named Reign, born at the station.

Evelyn Brandao, who was pregnant and with her family, was traveling into London Waterloo from Woking on 16 October this year.

Five minutes before she pulled into the station, at 3.45pm, she told a train guard she was about to have her baby.

The guard immediately called the station control team who sent staff to meet her at platform 13 and phoned for an ambulance.

However, the baby did not wait and at 4.10pm, as Evelyn was taken into the first aid room, baby Reign was born, weighing 6lbs and 8oz.

After being checked over by paramedics, all of the family were then taken to St Thomas’ Hospital.

Evelyn Brandao said: “It was a bit of rush getting off the train and finding somewhere private so I was absolutely relieved when I got to the first aid room.

“The staff looked after me really well and made it as easy as possible. We were hoping that Reign would wait, but there was no chance. The raspberry leaf tea that I had must have really worked!”

Network Rail’s Justyna Syla, shift station manager, was the first to answer the call from control. She said:

“I tried to calm Evelyn down as much as I could, but I’m not sure that the paramedics fully believed her when she said that the baby was coming right now!

“Everything happened so quickly and everyone responded well to the situation – it was a first for me and something that will live long in the memory.”

Lauren Smith, a midwife from the Home from Home birth centre at St Thomas’ Hospital, looked after Evelyn and Reign when they arrived. She said:

“We get a lot of patients travelling to see us from Waterloo but they are not normally this young!

“When Evelyn and her baby arrived at St Thomas’ it was our job to make sure that they were both safe and healthy, so it is wonderful to see how well they are doing now.”