Boston Globe

November 28, 2009

Mattapan grandmother makes special delivery

BOSTON -- A grandmother from Mattapan performed double duty this Thanksgiving, cooking dinner and helping deliver her new granddaughter.

Patricia McCalop was in the middle of preparing a Thanksgiving feast when her daughter, Africa McCalop, suddenly went into labor. She called 9-1-1 but there was no time to wait.

Africa had gone to the hospital early Thursday morning, but doctors said she wasn't ready to deliver. Then, just hours later, she gave birth to a baby girl at her mother's home.

"It was so fast. I didn't even know what to do. I felt the head coming, I was trying to hold her in until the ambulance came so I got to a safe place, but she wouldn't let me hold her, she just came," said Africa McCalop of her daughter Danizah's birth.

Patricia was simultaneously trying to deliver Danizah and cook the Thanksgiving turkey.

"So I'm running, you know, trying to cook the turkey...you know, I didn't want the turkey to burn either," said Patricia of the hectic scene at the family's home.

A 9-1-1 dispatcher helped Patricia to make sure Danizah was healthy and breathing.

"She's like, 'take her little foot out.' I was scared, and I grabbed her little foot, and she's like, 'take it and spank it.' So I spanked the little foot a little bit and she moved, and I was like, 'yeah, she's moving, she's moving,'" said Patricia of her granddaughter's first moments.

Paramedics arrived shortly after Danizah was born and took both Africa and Danizah to the hospital.

Danizah arrived two weeks early but healthy, weighing in at six pounds