Nurse gives birth in car as husband drives them to hospital at 70mph
A nurse has told how she gave birth in the front seat of a car that her husband was driving at 70mph.
While all births are incredible, you’d have to go a long way to find a more dramatic entrance into the world than that of little George Hubbard.
Naomi Hubbard, 29, was forced to give birth unaided, as her husband, Jack, 29, rushed them to hospital in their Mazda CX5.
The couple, from Stamford, Lincolnshire, had been sent home by Peterborough City Hospital just hours earlier after staff told them their fourth child wasn’t quite ready to be born.
But Naomi’s waters broke almost as soon as they returned home, forcing them to rush straight back out at 2am.
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As the couple made the 12 mile journey back to the hospital, Jack put his foot down in a bid to get his wife back as quickly as possible.
But when they were still four minutes away from A&E, Naomi called over to tell her husband the baby’s head was coming out.
Despite speeding along the A47 at 70mph, Naomi managed to deliver George, even calmly untangling the umbilical cord, which was wrapped around the newborn’s neck.
The pair then continued to hospital where medics took over, giving George, who was born weighing 7lb 5oz, a clean bill of health.
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The couple credit the new mother’s love of the Channel 4 documentary series One Born Every Minute for helping Naomi stay calm during the impromptu front seat delivery.
“I felt him coming and grabbed his head and then his body like I had seen midwives grab them on the show,” explains Naomi, an orthopaedic nurse at Peterborough City Hospital.
“It is quite embarrassing in a way because I’m a nurse, but I don’t deal with babies in my profession because I’m not a midwife.
“But my training must have helped in some sort of way, because as a nurse it's important to keep calm in highly stressful intense moments.
“One Born Every Minute may have helped but you just act on instinct in moments like those because it all happened so fast.”
Having never had a natural birth before, Naomi wasn’t expecting there to be so little time between her waters breaking and the baby coming out.
“We left home at about 2am and George was born at 2.30am,” she said.
“Once I’d untangled the umbilical cord and heard him cry that was an immense relief.”
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Naomi says little George is settling in really well at home and his brother and sisters Poppy, Harry and Millie are besotted with the new arrival.
“It's a good story to tell him when he grows up - the rest of my family didn't quite believe it.”
Jack, a tennis coach, said hospital staff didn't believe him at first when he arrived at A&E to tell them his wife was in the car with their newborn baby.
“I was rushing to get to the hospital and as I was driving along she said ‘the baby’s head is coming out’. The next thing I knew, I heard a baby cry.
“I was driving as fast as I could. I put my foot down to the floor. I didn’t dare look across at Naomi in the front seat,” he added.
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Having heard his baby’s arrival the Jack phoned the ambulance to say the couple were very close to the hospital and would need some assistance when they arrived.
“When it happened we were going quite fast, at least 70mph,” he said. “There can’t be too many babies who have been born at 70mph.”
After pulling up outside the hospital, Jack told staff his wife had had a baby in the front seat of the car.
“They didn’t believe me at first. I think they thought I meant she was giving birth, not that the baby had already come out,” he said.
“About 10 doctors or paramedics came out of A&E and started to panic and press emergency buttons.
“My wife was in the front seat and the seatbelt had tangled with the umbilical cord, so one of the medical staff had to cut through the belt. I’ll have to get a new one!”
After mother and baby were checked over, the family were given the all clear to be able to return home at 7am that morning.
“It’s quite a story to tell people,” Jack added.
Additional reporting SWNS.
