Woman gives birth on side of road after hitting rush-hour traffic en route to hospital
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}An expectant couple speeding toward the hospital had to pull over and become their own paramedics after their baby decided she couldn’t wait any longer to be born.
Soon-to-be dad Robert Darlington pulled over and laid towels down for his wife Brooke, who was in labor while stuck in rush-hour traffic last Monday.
Brooke, pictured with baby Paloma, forced her husband to pull over en route to the hospital. (SWNS)
“I woke up at 6 a.m. with contractions, so I rang the hospital, who said they would get the birthing pool ready for me at some point that morning,” Brooke Darlington told the South West News Service, a British news agency. “At 8 a.m. we left for the hospital and the contractions were really close together. I said, ‘You’re going to have to pull over, she’s coming!’”
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The couple was headed toward Burnley Birth Center in East Lancashire, England, but Brooke said her birth plans quickly turned into “the most undignified thing ever.”
“I was on all-fours screaming ‘she’s coming!’” she told SWNS.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Brooke and Paloma, at their birth scene, were then whisked away by paramedics, who gave them a clean bill of health. (SWNS)
Robert Darling sprang into action and called paramedics, who walked him through the delivery process. He said once he assessed the risk of delivering the baby on the side of the road versus trying to get his wife back in the car to get to the birthing center, he knew what to do.
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“It was all a blur, I rang 999 and followed the instructions — the operator was brilliant, she spoke me through it all,” he told SWNS. “Brooke did all the work, I just had to catch. Two pushes and she was here.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Their baby, Paloma, was then whisked away with Brooke to the hospital by paramedics who arrived about five minutes after the birth.
“I was just so happy that she was crying and breathing properly, it felt wonderful to hold her close to me in the ambulance after such a dramatic entrance to the world,” Brooke told SWNS. “It was actually really peaceful and I didn’t even realize we had a blue light and sirens on.”
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}They were given a clean bill of health at the hospital and later headed home to join Paloma’s older sister, Margot.