SHEFFIELD, Westmoreland — Twenty-nine-year-old Izebo Dyer is a carpenter by trade but hours after Hurricane Beryl hit Jamaica three weeks ago, he found himself thrust into the role of midwife/obstetrician as he helped to deliver a baby in his community of Sheffield, Westmoreland.

And while the grateful mother and his neighbours are commending him for his calmness in a difficult situation, Dyer has credited the knowledge he gained from watching movies for his invaluable assistance to the mother and her now-bouncing baby boy.

““Movies can do nuff things, because if you watch movies sometimes, you can build a gun but a the movie that you pree or watch motivate you. So, if yuh ah go do something inna life and it ah guh affect you [negatively], it does not make any sense you duh it,” Dyer told the Jamaica Observer on Monday.

“Show is reality, you know, but is just how you take it,” added Dyer as he pointed out that he is selective in what he watches.

The baby boy named Anotine was delivered on Thursday, July 4 around 3:33 am, a day before the mother’s next scheduled doctor’s visit.

The child’s mother, Carlene Knight, told the Observer that she started experiencing signs of labour during the passage of the hurricane.

According to Knight, she woke up with an urge to pass urine around 10:00 pm but quickly realised that it was more than that.

She said she went to rest on a settee when, around 1:23 am, she began experiencing pain at intervals of five minutes.

Knight also complained of feeling hot, but with no electricity to operate her fans, she called her 14-year-old son and asked him to fan her.

“He had a book in his hand and I grabbed onto his shirt and said, ‘fan mi, mi hot,’ ” said Knight who later asked her son and daughter to call her neighbour.

“Same time, my daughter start panic. She never experienced it, so she up and down but my son, him [was] strong enough. I lay down and mi ah bawl and ah seh ‘Jesus, why inna di storm?’ ” said Knight as she recalled the distress she faced.

By then, weather conditions had begun to improve and Dyer, who was coming from a shop that had remained open during the storm, was in time to deliver assistance to her.

He said initially he was reluctant to enter the room but later decided to see if he could offer any sort of assistance to the woman who was obviously in distress.

“So, by the time mi go a the door now, there comes the baby and mi ah seh ‘this don’t look good.’ Mi si di baby head push out, so I stepped towards the mother and tried to assist her but, really and truly… it was a bit mind-opening to see what had taken place,” said Dyer as he told the Observer that he considers himself someone talented, capable of observing and figuring out things on his own.

He said he assisted in receiving the baby, cutting, and clipping the umbilical cord, clearing the nose of the child, and rubbing the baby’s head with olive oil while a young woman from the community, Tanice Gilpin, assisted him.

According to Dyer, half of a bottle of alcohol and Dettol were used to sterilise the scissors used to cut the umbilical cord.

The Observer was told that a nurse, who lives in the area, later visited the scene and declared that the baby was okay and approved of the procedure performed by Dyer.

This was later confirmed at the hospital, which the mother visited later that morning.

Dyer, who is originally from Clarendon but has been living in Sheffield for the past 18 months, said this is something he would do all over again.

““Ah wah yuh ah seh, man? Yes, man! You see once it inna yuh brain and yuh have di knowledge to do it, it does not make sense yuh stop because some people don’t get the knowledge. Some people go to school and they still don’t have the heart to do it,”” said Dyer,” who has an interest in becoming an emergency medical technician and who has a sister studying nursing in Clarendon.

During the Observer’s visit to the community residents shared their appreciation for Dyer’s good deed.

Among them was 11-year-old Kevonna Gilpin, who shared a poem she wrote about Dyer who, she said, is always giving a helping hand in the community.

Another neighbour, Alicia Gilpin, said she visited the house while the umbilical cord was about to be cut but left immediately because she did not have the stomach to watch.

“I panicked for the moment but after that I had to say to myself that he is very good because if it was me in that situation I don’t know if I could even bear to deliver the baby,”” said Alicia.

““I was even asking him who he grow up with because, you know, most persons like that growing up with their grandmother would know the care and stuff like that,” added Alicia.”