A dad has described the moment his partner gave birth in his car as he was driving on a motorway fast lane.
Lee Reynolds was doing 70mph on the M65 when his partner, Natalie Whitton, gave birth to their second child in the car's footwell. Lee, 34, thought he had 'plenty of time' when his 31-year-old partner went into labour in the early hours of Wednesday morning (July 27).
But, as the couple were travelling along the motorway near Burnley, the dad was left stunned when his new baby 'shot out' of Natalie, a kitchen porter in Darwen. Lee was on the phone to a midwife throughout the delivery in the Ford Fiesta estate as the birth of Harrison was happening beside him.
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Lee, a transport manager, said: "We were in the fast lane going 70mph, and I just looked on the floor and went 'there’s a baby in the footwell!' to my partner. She quickly picked up the baby, and then the midwife on the phone was telling us what to do.
"We needed to make sure the baby was breathing, and once she was sure the baby was breathing, she said to carry on."
When Harrison, who weighed 7lb, 11oz was born, Lee pulled over to the hard shoulder in order to wait for an ambulance crew. However, as the clock was ticking with no medical assistance, the concerned dad decided to make a quick drive to the nearest hospital and Natalie was seen immediately.
Natalie began experiencing contractions around 3.30am Wednesday but the couple didn't rush to Burnley Hospital as they were turned away for being too early when they had their first born daughter, Sienna, now four.
Lee continued: "Natalie rang Burnley Hospital at about 3.30 in the morning to speak to the midwife, but when she stood up, her water had gone. She had these pains but said ‘I’ll hold off for a bit’, just thinking there’s no point going all the way to Burnley just to get turned away again.”
Lee spent the morning organising childcare for Sienna, before they set off on the half an hour journey to the hospital at around 5.30am. As they sped along the motorway, Lee began calling nearby birthing units and the emergency services, worrying about his partner and the impending birth.
Natalie added: "Lee kept asking me if I wanted to pull over. I could feel a little bit of an urge to push, but I said 'keep going!’ Then all of a sudden, the baby came out, and it went into the footwell of the car on the floor.
"I remember feeling relieved that this pressure had gone. I had a water birth before, and that helped a lot, but I had nothing this time.”
Lee said: “When we were on the motorway, Natalie said 'It’s coming, I’m not going to make it', and that's when I thought, 'oh, s**t, we ain’t going to make it'. I ended up dialling Blackburn Birth Centre, which is closer to Burnley than us. But when we called the midwife and said, ‘can we come to you’, she said 'no we’re full’, so we just carried on."
It was when Lee was on the phone to a midwife that baby Harrison was born. He 'literally shot out into the footwell', said Lee. Baby Harrison was born at 5.57am, under the guidance of 999 emergency call handlers, with Lee helping his partner to perform some basic health checks on their new child.
The two then travelled to Burnley Hospital where they spent roughly six hours with doctors before returning home. Lee added: "I could actually see the sign on junction 12 of the M65 for Burnley hospital – and that’s the junction I needed. I was ten minutes away.
"So I ended speaking to the midwife, saying 'am I better just going? What do you advise?' And she said 'if you think you’ll be alright, and you’ll be quicker, just go for it'. We went straight into the hospital, into the emergency out-of-hours unit, and two midwives and a healthcare assistant came running out to Natalie to help her."
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