Mum gives birth at side of the road after crashing car driving to hospital

Ireland: A mum gave birth by the side of the road - after her car crashed on the way to hospital.

Doctors say a baby girl is lucky to be alive after the emergency delivery.

The girl’s mother went into labour and crashed at a roundabout as she drove in thick fog to hospital in Kilkenny, Ireland.

The woman, a mother of three, was driving from Carlow to St Luke’s hospital in Kilkenny shortly after 7.30pm on Wednesday when she started going into labour and ploughed into a roundabout on the outskirts of the city.

Several passers-by stopped, including Eamonn and Mae Doyle from Kilkenny city, the Irish Mirror reports.

Eamonn, a retired policeman, said a teenager who had come upon the scene told him the woman was going to have a baby.

Mae made her way over to the car. The driver’s door was open and the woman was lying back across the passenger seat.

She told Mrs Doyle: “Get ready to catch my baby”.

Mae Doyle put out her hands and says the baby popped into her arms, crying out loud. She told the woman the baby was fine, that it was a girl and that everything would be OK.

They managed to find a blanket and wrapped the baby as best they could. The umbilical cord was still attached as they waited for an ambulance.

Eamonn Doyle had phoned an ambulance, which they say came nearly 20 minutes after the initial call. The ambulance crew took the woman and the baby to hospital.

The little girl suffered mild hypothermia and is safe and well in St Luke’ in Kilkenny.

Her mother is said to be very grateful for those that helped deliver her seven pound girl, who has not yet been named.