Surge in births after deadly New Zealand quake

Christchurch Women's Hospital, which has experienced a surge in births after last week's 6.3-magnitude tremor

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — As many as 240 people likely died in New Zealand's devastating earthquake, but health services have also been stretched coping with a different problem -- a surge in new life.

Canterbury district health director David Meates said there had been a "real pressure" to deal with births after last week's 6.3-magnitude tremor, and that premature babies packed out Christchurch Hospital's neonatal unit.

"Earthquakes do tend to hurry things along for those intending to deliver," said Meates of the surge in births, which saw some 76 maternity patients hospitalized in the days after the February 22 quake.

So many births followed the deadly jolt that some babies had to be transferred to North Island hospitals while Christchurch Hospital put out a call for extra midwives from across the country.

An even greater spike was seen after last September's 7.0-level tremor, when 21 babies were born at the hospital in the following 24 hours, a record number for a Saturday.

"It's just one of those things. You could blame it on the full moon or the high tide. I think anecdotally people go into survival mode," Canterbury midwifery director Samantha Burke told local media.

Christchurch woman Jo Blackman visited her midwife just hours before the earthquake and was told not to expect her baby for a few more days. When the tremor struck, all she could think about was rushing through her shuddering house to reach her two-year-old son, Josh.

"I didn't even think about the pregnancy -- I just wanted to get to Josh," Blackman, 34, told Fairfax newspapers. "Then when my husband got back and we were looking at a few cracks in the house I suddenly felt my contractions."

Baby Alyssa was born at 7:30 pm as frantic searches continued for survivors in central Christchurch and as hundreds of injured people were tended on surrounding floors.

"It was just good to have a healthy baby girl born into the world when so many others were experiencing suffering and loss," she said.

Among those who went into labour during the quake was the sister of New Zealand soccer captain Ryan Nelsen.

Nelsen is making his way home to Christchurch, hoping to help in the recovery after gaining permission from his Blackburn Rovers.

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New Zealand quake toll rises as hope fades for survivors

(Reuters) - International rescue teams searched through the rubble of quake-ravaged Christchurch on Friday for more than 200 people still missing, but rain and cold were dimming hopes of finding more survivors in the country's worst natural disaster in decades.

Teams from quake-prone countries such as Japan, Taiwan and the United States used sniffer dogs and microphones to scour collapsed buildings for any sign of life, after Tuesday's 6.3 magnitude tremor struck the country's second biggest city.

The disaster has so far claimed 113 lives, and authorities warned the death toll was set to climb.

Many of the missing were students who had come to the city, one of New Zealand's most attractive, from Japan, China, Taiwan and India to learn English against a backdrop of the country's dramatic southern alps.

"For those people in those far off places, your families are our families, your children are our children," Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker said in a message to their families overseas, promising searchers would not abandon hope.

Tales were emerging of daring rescues, with doctors in the depths of one collapsed building having to use a Swiss Army knife to amputate one man's legs to free him.

"There wasn't really any other option. Essentially the procedure was performed with a Swiss Army knife. I know that sounds terrible, but that's all we had," doctor Stuart Philip told the Dominion Post newspaper.

Rescuers pulled aside massive stone blocks and 13 one-tonne church bells from the toppled spire of the landmark ChristChurch Cathedral in the city heart, where as many as 22 bodies could now be trapped in a square popular with tourists.

"We're having to move extremely slowly, we're working brick by brick. There are a lot of loved ones in here that we want to get out," rescue worker Steve Culhane told.

Police said 228 people were listed as missing. The list could include many people whose bodies have been found but yet to be identified. More than 2,500 were injured in the quake, and more than 160 of them seriously.

Fears that a teetering 26-storey hotel might be toppled by aftershocks eased after engineers found the building had stabilized over the past day, allowing an exclusion zone around it to be narrowed and for rescuers to enter nearby buildings.

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Christchurch earthquake: CTV building 'not survivable' - police

Police have abandoned all hope of finding survivors at the collapsed Canterbury TV building in central Christchurch.

Inspector Dave Lawry said he was "100 per cent" certain those trapped in the building, including a non-sworn police staff member and a group of overseas students, were dead.

All emergency personnel have been moved away from the building because of danger the unstable Grand Chancellor Hotel would collapse onto it, he said.

He felt particularly sorry for the family of what is believed to be a group of Japanese students who died inside.

"At a certain point I'm not going to risk my staff for people where I believe there is no chance of survivability."

Fires burned in the CTV building overnight and no signs of life have been detected there by cameras or listening devices.

Christchurch area commander Dave Cliff said the loss of a staff member in the building was painful.

It meant police could relate to the loss and desperation being suffered by family with loved ones still trapped, he said.

Nancy Wu, whose husband Paul Wu is among the missing in the CTV building, said news that search and rescue workers were putting efforts at the site on hold was "devastating".

"But hopefully they will return and not give up because people can still be alive for many hours. We are not giving up hope."

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