A mum gave birth in her car in just four pushes - and credits the swift delivery to three weeks of daily pelvic exercises. Jade Mead, 35, swore by her fitness regime - which included deep squats and side lunges - during her last two pregnancies. She did the exercises to ensure the birth would be as quick and easy as possible.
Her second labour happened so quickly she wasn’t able to make it to the hospital in time - and her husband, Ryan, 40, a digital marketer, had to pull his car over and deliver her baby on the roadside. Little Lottie, now four weeks old, popped out in just four pushes weighing 7lbs 2oz.
Mum and baby were taken to hospital to be checked over but are now home and healthy. Jade, a fitness coach said: “I had to give birth in the middle of a roadside.
"There were no lights, I had no pain relief, and I was screaming with every push. It all happened so quickly!”
Jade had experienced a similar situation with her first daughter, Mali, three. Mali was born three weeks early - which meant Jade was unable to continue her birthing prep exercises to full-term.
On December 27 2019, Jade gave birth to Mali in just five hours, weighing 7lbs 2oz. Jade puts her quick births down to her exercise routine.
She said: “I focused a lot on hip-opening exercises to prepare for each birth. A lot of them focused on yoga and stretching. So I was swearing by deep squats, child’s pose, cat-cow pose, deep lunge stretches and side-lunge stretches.
“I also drank a lot of raspberry leaf tea, and did a lot of curb walking - where you walk with one foot on the curb, one foot in the road.”
She practiced the exact same regime in the last three weeks of her second pregnancy - and her midwife suggested her labour experiences would be similar. Jade carried Lottie to term and her contractions started on April 26 2023 at 7am.
They began “very slowly” and herself and Ryan thought her experience would be very different - so they didn’t set off for the hospital straight away. Jade said: “Labour didn’t progress for a very long time - until it did, and it all happened within the last hour!
“At 6:30pm, Ryan and I put Mali to bed and left her with my mum. We wanted to put her to bed and bath her ourselves just to know she was safe and sorted. But because we did that, we ended up leaving too late. At 7pm, we got in the car, and my entire body was shivering and shaking.
“Straight away, my contractions became really intense.”
While Ryan drove Jade to the hospital, she attempted to distract herself from all the pain she was having. She said: “I was using anything I could - but I didn’t actually have any pain relief!
“I had a TENS machine on my back boosting stimulation to my muscles - I was pressing the button on it every time I had a contraction. I was squeezing a birthing comb as well - for no other reason than just desperately needing to distract myself!”
After 10 minutes in the car, Jade’s body began to push naturally. After the first push, her waters broke. She said: “Luckily Ryan had put towels down before I got in.
“He called our midwife at the Family Centre and she told him to pull over immediately - I wasn’t going to make it! At 7:20pm, we were told to just call an ambulance straight away - so Ryan had to juggle two different calls on two different phones.
“Meanwhile, my body was telling me I needed to push. On the second push, the midwife told my husband I was crowning and he needed to feel for the baby’s head. I was screaming, wearing five pairs of pants. He was trying to manage two calls and feel how far I’d dilated - all at the same time.
“As he felt around, I screamed and pushed - his hand flew out - and so did the baby’s head.”
On the sideroad, Jade’s midwife and the emergency service operator were trying to get her to stay calm, while Ryan had to deliver the baby.
She said: “I had my eyes closed the whole time - I was in so much pain. After the first two big pushes - I decided to take my shorts off. Within two more pushes, Lottie came out at 7:28pm.
“It was such a blur. I was exhausted. The midwife told Ryan to pop her on my chest and rub her back. It was a miracle, she was crying and red-faced straight away. Just a really healthy baby.”
Ryan wrapped Jade and Lottie up in blankets while they waited for the paramedics to arrive. Jade gave birth to the placenta in hospital and cut Lottie’s umbilical cord.
Four weeks on both Jade and Lottie are doing well - and Ryan's even considering a new career in midwifery. She said: “We’re both doing completely fine now - both Lottie and Mali are happy and healthy.
"Ryan keeps joking to our friends that he fancies himself as a midwife now - he's got once-in-a-lifetime practical training!"
