Clara’s express delivery on A76
On road to life as baby beats maternity race
A baby’ s birth certificate states she was born on the A76 after she arrived in a car.
Cute Clara Coward appeared only seven minutes after her parent’s Zoe and Ben left their Catrine home for hospital.
Dad Ben had to rapidly find a birthing bay and become the ‘ midwife’ when Zoe realised her child was about to appear.
Experienced mother Zoe, 33, said: “Clara just flew out.
“We reached Mauchline and I said to Ben ‘ we need to pull over now, the baby is coming’.
“He phoned an ambulance and when he got off the call the baby was crowning.
“Ben was so calm. He was telling the ambulance worker his mobile number and stopped to tell them he could see the baby’s head and then continued with reciting the number. He was hilarious.
“It was like an out- of- body experience, like I was looking down on myself in labour. There was no time to panic or be scared. We just had to deal with it.”
Ben, 34, delivered his daughter and Zoe wrapped her in a jacket while they waiting for the paramedics to arrive at the Mauchline Games Hall car park.
The entire drug- free labour was over in 40 minutes.
It had taken Zoe half an hour to get from her bedroom to the car because of painful contractions. She said: “I was crawling on my hands and feet.”
Their daughter was born alive and well at 5.15am. They left the house at 5.08am.
Ben’s efficient delivery was put down to his farming experience growing up. Dumfries House worker Zoe said: “He is from Orkney and his mum did lots of lambing and he used to help her.
“Clara came out screaming, It was just such a huge relief.”
When the paramedics turned up Zoe and Clara were whisked away to Crosshouse Hospital. Ben followed in the car.
When pinpointing the place of delivery for Clara’s birth certificate, Zoe decided to be entirely accurate and fill in the A76.
She is compiling a memory box for her daughter which will contain details of the dramatic birth.
The placenta was delivered at Crosshouse and mother and daughter had to stay in because Clara had an eye infection.
Mum- of- three Zoe said: “It gave us a chance to bond and I got time alone with her.
“One of the midwives at the hospital said mums who do it themselves tend to give in to their bodies and just accept what is happening. If you relax and let it happen it just happens.”
Clara is little sister to Libby, 5, and Murray, 3.