A heroic Irish nurse working with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) helped to deliver a baby on a rescue boat aiding kidnapping victims. His name? Baby Miracle.
A Nigerian woman who was kidnapped and held in captivity for a year after traveling to Lybia safely gave birth to a baby boy, named Miracle, on board a rescue vessel, and Irish nurse Aoife Ni Mhurchu was there to help.
Ni Mhurchu works with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and shared the story with RTE Radio One's Morning Ireland program. The new mother was one of 51 men and 18 women - five of whom were pregnant - rescued last week from a rubber boat off the coast of Lybia.
Amoin the #MSF midwife on board the #Aquarius introduces baby Miracle. He is celebrated by the rescued people with singing & dancing. pic.twitter.com/YoIgxIqdMW
— MSF Sea (@MSF_Sea) May 26, 2018
She had been held for almost a year and was starving and regularly subject to beatings. The rescue came in the nick of time for the expectant mother, who went into active labor shortly after being rescued. Though she was only 34 weeks pregnant, the medical team on board the rescue boat, the MV Aquarius, attributed her early labor to the excessive stress she had endured.
“If she had gone into labor 48 hours earlier she would have been in a very different and dangerous situation where she would have been giving birth completely terrified, heavily pregnant and hiding on a beach in Libya," Ni Mhurchu said.
Happy news from the #Aquarius this afternoon with the birth of a healthy baby boy! Baby Miracle was born at 3.45pm, weighing 2.8kgs, bringing the total number of rescued people to 70. Both mother & baby are well & will disembark tomorrow morning in the port of Catania, Sicily. pic.twitter.com/zvwxeygK6m
— MSF Sea (@MSF_Sea) May 26, 2018
She reported that mother and baby are doing well and are in the hospital in Sicily, where the boat docked.
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Baby Miracle will have Nigerian citizenship.
A big hello to all @MSF supporters from Aoife Ní Murchú, who is nearing the end of her assignment in #PapuaNewGuinea pic.twitter.com/4lNYMonn8Z
— MSF Ireland (@MSF_ireland) May 21, 2016
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