Planning To Give Birth In A Black Cab? Black Cabbies Are Now Trained Midwives

Harry Rosehill
By Harry Rosehill Last edited 72 months ago

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Planning To Give Birth In A Black Cab? Black Cabbies Are Now Trained Midwives

Where do you want the birth of your child to take place? In a hospital? Or perhaps you want it to happen in the comfort of your own home? For those who get caught in between those two options, don't worry, black cabbies are here to save the day.

That's thanks to the Knowledge+ — a new initiative from mytaxi — 17,500 black cab drivers have received training in first aid, acid attacks and emergency childbirth scenarios. That's just one more skill they can add to their CVs, along with the expanded hippocampi.

The scheme was developed because taxi drivers are more frequently finding themselves as first responders in medical emergencies. 71% of cabbies say they've made emergency trips to hospitals in lieu of ambulances.

The scheme was developed in partnership with St John Ambulance, one of the world's leading first aid charities.

Peter Thompson, black cabbie driver for mytaxi, said:

The Knowledge+ is a great initiative, and I should know because I've found myself in some of these emergency scenarios, where the knowledge and expertise to administer first aid, would have been invaluable.

During my time as a cabbie driver, I've witnessed two women go into labour in the back of my cab! Without the knowledge which I've learnt today, I wouldn't feel as confident in my ability to fully take care of my passengers, which is incredibly important to me.

Disclaimer: these black cabbies aren't officially midwives, just trained to deal with emergency childbirth scenarios — so we'd still advise going to a hospital when possible.

Last Updated 19 March 2018