After not sitting on the ambulance dispatch desk for almost six months, Boris Dobrowolsky was just expecting to pick up some overtime, says Michael Swainson, his boss and acting manager of Whitehorse's ambulance service.

But it was Friday, May 13, and sometimes things just don't go as planned on those 'lucky' days.

Over the course of May 13, the ambulance dispatch set a new record for incoming 911 calls, receiving 40 calls in a 24-hour period.

However, one stood out from the rest.

At about 10 p.m., Dobrowolsky received a call from a woman saying she needed an ambulance 'right now' because her friend, Michelle Au, 27, was having a baby.

Today, Au's friend could not be reached and Au asked that the friend go unnamed.

In the midst of caring for her now week-old daughter, Au was also unavailable to comment further this morning on her experience.

However, on Thursday afternoon, the Star was able to listen to the tape of the very unique 911 call and birth of her baby.

'Her water hasn't broken yet or anything but she's been having back pain for a day,' the friend said on the tape.

'The ambulance is on the way as we speak, can you stay on the line and I'll tell you what to do?' Dobrowolsky asked her during the 911 call.

Dobrowolsky has been part of the emergency medical services for 24 years and now works as a flight medic.

Although his position means he hasn't sat at the dispatch desk in months, he followed the dispatch system and was able to help Au and her friend deliver the baby.

The advance medical priority dispatch system is a card flip system that enables the attendant to get a response to a series of questions. As the situation changes, and, based on the answers, the dispatcher flips to other cards and provides the caller with the information he or she needs to get through the emergency in this case, labour.

The system is used throughout North America, and all dispatchers must take a three-day course to learn how to use it properly, says Swainson.

'Do not try to prevent the birth, do not get her to cross her legs, don't let her sit on the toilet, allow her to assume the most comfortable position and get her to take deep breaths between contractions,' Dobrowolsky said.

Swainson says dispatchers need to get and keep the caller calm.

'Ma'am, you've got to keep calm if I'm going to help your baby. Ma'am, you've got to keep calm if I'm going to help your baby,' is a common phrase used when dealing with emergency situations over the phone, Swainson says.

The statements tell the callers several things that they need to keep calm, that the person in need is going to be helped and that the dispatcher will be helping them through it, he says.

Usually by the third time a dispatcher gives them the message, the callers are calm enough that they are able to be helped, he added.

People need to be calm for a dispatcher to be able to help them, or else they won't be hearing what you say and following the instructions properly, he says.

Despite the stress of the situation, and a very fast birth the entire call to the ambulance dispatch lasted only 10 minutes and 56 seconds Au's friend managed to follow Dobrowolsky's instructions and guide her through the birth of her second child.

'Basically, what you should do is help her and tell her to take deep breaths between her contractions, and I'm just going to stay on the phone until the ambulance gets there,' Dobrowolsky said.

At one point, he asked that Au lay down.

'Can you lay down?' her friend asked.

'No,' Au said in the background of the call.

'You have to lay down.'

'I can't.'

'You have to, you have to, come on,' said her friend.

In trying to determine the status of the labour, Dobrowolsky asked the friend if she could see the baby's head yet. He was told she couldn't.

'I don't think this is imminent; she's not crowning,' Dobrowolsky said off-mic to the ambulance that was en route to Au's Porter Creek home.

However, in the end, he spoke too soon. Only seconds later, the friend said, 'The head's right there. I can see the baby's head.'

Au's husband, Michael, arrived home as Michelle's water broke.

Swainson says he had just stepped out to run a quick errand.

With his arrival, Au's friend sent him around the house to get dry towels and a blanket to wrap the baby in and a shoelace to tie around the umbilical cord.

Michael then followed the friend's instructions and delivered the baby.

'Gently clean the baby's mouth and nose with a dry towel. The baby will be slippery, don't drop it,' Dobrowolsky said.

'There's the head. The baby's out,' the friend told him with the ambulance still having not having arrived.

'She's starting to cry now. There we go. Come on. The baby's breathing. She's crying,' said the friend.

With the Au's new baby girl , Brianne Christena, already born, the ambulance staff then arrived and began to care for the baby.

Dobrowolsky ended the call with, 'Well, congratulations, good work.'

However, in a lot of ways, it was Dobrowolsky who did the good work and has since been given a letter of commendation, Swainson says.

Dobrowolsky, however, has shaken off the experience. He told Swainson he just did his job, and had his manager pass along the message that doing media interviews 'really isn't his thing.'

Though it's normal for labour after the first child to go much faster, a baby being delivered by EMS dispatch or even in an ambulance is not a frequent occurrence, says Swainson.

In his 21 years with the EMS, Swainson has never had to deliver a baby.

But, it isn't just the uncommon birthing situation Dobrowolsky deserves recognition for, says Swainson. It's the fact he was able to deal with it amongst the 39 other incoming calls that night while sitting on the dispatch desk alone.

'He did a great job, a very good job,' he says.