'I gave birth on the hard shoulder of the M2'
Watch: Mum gives birth to her baby on hard shoulder of the M2
A mum has shared how she was forced to give birth to her baby in the car on the hard shoulder of the M2, with her partner having to tie the umbilical cord with his shoelace.
Izzy Farrell, 34, from Whitstable, Kent, had a long 22-hour labour with her first daughter, Calliope, now two, with a number of interventions required.
So when she started to get cramps on her second baby's due date, she expected the birth to be hours, or even days away.
But when her contractions got stronger she and partner Christian Guthrie, 34, jumped into their car and sped off on the M2.
The dad-to-be was forced to pull over on the hard shoulder and only just managed to scramble out of the car fast enough to catch newborn, Aura, as she was born in the passenger seat of the couple's Hyundai Ioniq.
The call handler then advised the new dad to tie off the umbilical cord with his shoelace after he spotted it had split.
Just 13 hours after her first contraction, the family were on their way back down the motorway heading home.
Farrell says she first felt a cramp on her due date, April 5, at around 3am and initially put it down to Braxton Hicks.
But an hour later the cramps got stronger and more painful, so the couple decided to head to Medway Maritime Hospital, Kent.
"Izzy was labouring in the car but the first time she gave birth, it took so long that I never considered we wouldn't make it to the hospital in time," Guthrie explains.
"I was driving as fast as the law allowed, but when Izzy said the baby was coming, I had to pull over.
"I called 999 and was frantically trying to explain to the operator what was happening.
"I opened the car door and could already see it crowning, we could tell that baby was coming no matter what.
"It happened so quickly that I had to drop my phone halfway through the call to pull out the baby!"
Aura was born at 6:41am on April 5 2024, weighing 7lbs 5oz, after just five minutes of pushing.
"Neither of us do medical jobs and had never done anything like this before," Guthrie says of his daughter's birth.
Despite the couple's daughter arriving safely, there were still some hurdles to navigate.
"The umbilical cord had split in the chaos of bundling her up and pulling her out," Guthrie explains. "The operator said there was a risk of blood loss if that happens.
"So I had to take off my shoe and use the shoelace to tie it off.
"Then, it was freezing cold at 6am in April standing on the hard shoulder of the motorway, so I had to focus on wrapping up Aura in coats and blankets until the ambulance came."
Speaking about her baby's dramatic entrance into the world, Farrell says: "It gushed everywhere, like something out of a film.
"There was nowhere to stop except the hard shoulder, and I could already see the head crowning, so we had no choice.
"I gave birth while an American pop punk band played on the car radio, but I could barely hear it over my screams as I pushed.
"It wasn't how we planned for it to go, but it's a great story and we got a happy, smiley and healthy baby at the end."
Farrell continues: "I found it funny how I had opted for a hospital birth instead of a home birth because I thought it would be safer.
"But it would actually have been safer for me to have stayed home and had her there!
"It was quite scary being taken on a stretcher as lorries fly by at 70 miles per hour," she adds.
"But it's a great story now. One day, Aura will be bored of hearing about it as we talk about it all the time."
Guthrie adds: Everything ended up fine in the end - except the car resembled a crime scene afterwards!
"But I wouldn't recommend giving birth at the side of the road!"
Additional reporting SWNS.
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