Special delivery

Special delivery

An elite unit of the Royal Traffic Police helps people in emergencies, especially women in labour

SOCIAL & LIFESTYLE
Special delivery

Rather bulky and not very tall, Pol Sen Sgt Maj Mana Jokkok-sung doesn't have the ideal physique for chasing thieves. Late in the evening as he and his colleagues are about to mount their motorcycles, ready to go home, a voice comes through his police radio.

Another new life is helped into the world by a member of the Royal Traffic Police.

"Emergency, there's a pregnant woman about to deliver a baby at a construction site in Sukhumvit Soi 22," it barks.

Saddled up on their big white motorbikes with blue stripes, used only by the traffic police under the Royal Project, they speed out towards Sukhumvit. Their expertise is neither chasing thieves nor busting drug gangs, but bringing new lives into the world.

The Royal Traffic Police is a special unit set up by HM the King and the late Princess Mother, HRH Princess Srinagarindra, in 1993 to help alleviate road congestion in Bangkok. There are 100 officers in this unit, separated into three teams: the first responsible for northern Bangkok, the second for the south and the third for the Thon Buri area. While some officers have been transferred from various other units, quite a few have voluntarily signed up.

"At first I thought this job was just to help facilitate congested traffic," explains Mana. "I joined this unit initially because I was quite content with the good welfare and benefits it offered, additional money every month from the HM the King, a motorcycle, as well as fuel costs. It was only later that I realised I would get to help people in road accidents and other emergencies."

Though very timid by nature, Mana is anything but shy when he is on his bike. Engine roaring, with deafening sirens and lights flashing, he leads the team through traffic with force and confidence.

It's obvious that he never has any doubt about each move he makes. Even when all the lanes are jammed with cars, he finds the right passage to go through.

Making his way to Sukhumvit 22 from Si Ayutthaya Road, through Phetchaburi Road, onto Chidlom and Rama IV road, communicating through his police radio all the way, Mana says it is a very different experience today than when he first joined the unit 17 years ago.

"With my first case, I was all nerves," recounts Mana. "I was told that there was a woman about to deliver her baby in a car. I approached the car from the side and looking through the window, I saw the mother in the front seat, and could see that the baby was crowning. I was sweating all over. My heart was beating so fast. Just putting on rubber gloves was difficult. Finally I pulled myself together and tried to remember what I had trained for. Now I have helped deliver a total of 50 babies."

What seemed a good idea 20 years ago has turned out to be a perfectly suitable project today, indispensable especially since the state of traffic in Bangkok has gotten worse in recent years.

Taking pregnant women who are close to labour to the hospital in time during rush hour seems an impossible task, and these traffic policemen are a modern version of midwives, albeit midwives who don't walk slowly with the help of canes, but instead ride fast and forcefully with high-powered engines. During the early years of the unit's establishment, the officers trained with the Thai Red Cross Society and the Police Nursing College.

Now they are trained by Bangkok Hospital and the National Institute for Emergency Medicine. Even though Pol Sgt Maj Araya Pomkhai has not been with the unit for as long as Mana, he looks equally calm and confident.

''I don't get nervous when helping deliver babies,'' smiles Araya.

''I delivered my own son in the back of a taxi when I wasn't even a police officer. My wife and I were stuck in traffic, with her mum sitting in the front seat. I did what my mother-in-law told me, how to hold the baby's head and everything. When my son exited the birth canal he wouldn't cry, because I had no bulb syringe to suck out the fluid that interrupted his breathing. I decided to suck it out with my mouth. I know it's not exactly the right way but he's my son after all. He turned out fine and now he's 18 years old.''

Before Araya and Mana reach Sukhumvit 22, a few of their colleagues had already got the expectant mother into an ambulance, and were on their way to Chulalongkorn Hospital.

However, at Klong Toey, the baby could not wait any longer and was delivered on the side of the road.

When the baby boy delivers his first loud, strong cry to the world, there's a broad smile on every face around him.

Everybody smiles, the mother, the father, the doctor, the policemen, even passers-by.

Mana and his colleagues' job is to get to where the ambulance is and guide it to the hospital as soon as possible as there are still many risks for both the baby and mother, even after a safe delivery.

''It's not our job anymore if there are doctors around, it's their expertise,'' explains Mana. ''We only help deliver babies when it's really necessary, like when its crowning. Our job is to see if the baby is breathing normally and to take care of the mother. Then we get them to the hospital as fast as possible.

''If its head has already come out, we've been taught that in less than five minutes the baby will be delivered,'' adds Araya. ''Then we have to park by the roadside and do the delivery there. But if it's not the usual case, like when other parts of the body, not its head, come out first, it's beyond our ability and we need a doctor's help.''

Instead of the maddening gridlock on a typical weekday evening, Rama IV for an ambulance carrying a newborn baby is like a smooth Sunday ride. While one officer has already gone ahead to signal cars to move away from one lane on the right, and another is stopping other cars from switching into the lane, Mana is leading the ambulance ahead.

''Our job is 24 hours,'' says Pol Sen Sgt Maj Krissana Petchnoi. ''We get to help people and once they have safely reached the hospital, whether it's people with heart attacks or pregnant women, all the exhaustion is gone.''

Mana adds that this job perfectly fits the kind of person he is.

''This is just how I have been taught in my family when growing up, to always help other people. Once I can help, I feel glad and motivated to help more.''

For Pol Sen Sgt Maj Udomsak Sala, this job provides him an insight regarding the state of society.

''For most emergency delivery cases, it's people of minority ethnicity, those working in construction sites. I don't understand why there isn't any welfare projects by the state to help women who are close to labour. I have seen a case where the father dropped the baby to the ground because it was very slippery and he was not well prepared. There should be a training for all dads-to-be.''

''It's probably because people of minority ethnicities are afraid to go to hospital here,'' Araya suggests. ''But it's an issue that's beyond our responsibility. Whoever the people may be, they are humans who love their families as much as we do.''

Pol Sen Sgt Maj Mana Jokkoksung with a ‘practice baby’.

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