The sweet fortune of motherhood smiled on Mrs. Grace Obehi in the early hours of Sunday in Lagos, Southwest Nigeria, as she was delivered of a baby boy inside a commuter bus.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) correspondent, who visited the scene of the incident, quotes an eye witness, Mrs. Ifeoma Ogugua, as saying that Obehi entered into labour during a church service.
Ogugua said that she noticed that the pregnant woman was restless in the church, “as she stood instead of sitting during the church service.”
She said she linked the pregnant woman’s restlessness to labour pains and decided to pay close attention to her.
“I followed Obehi, when she hurriedly left the church after offering, as it was apparent that labour had caught up with her.
“What baffled me the most was why she refused to call on anyone for help when she knew that she needed one” Ogugua said
Initially, she said she felt like leaving the woman to carry her own cross, but changed her mind because she reasoned that the woman might be having her first experience as a mother.
According to Ogugua, mother luck smiled on them as they found an empty commuter bus along Aka Road in Okokomaiko, a suburb of Lagos, that accepted to convey them to the nearest hospital.
The good “Samaritan” said that they had to stop near Lots Petrol Station, Okokomaiko, as labour intensified, while she was battling to reach Mr. Obehi on phone. She said that the accompanying confusion made her to alert other women who were returning from church for assistance.
Ogugua said the women rallied round and spread their wrappers, as an experienced elderly woman Iya Risi helped in the process.
