A 28-YEAR-OLD woman from Rush has described how her new baby was in such a hurry to be born that she ended up delivering her by herself in a garage toilet in Swords earlier this month.
Amy Balfe, from the north Co Dublin town, gave birth two weeks ago while on her way to the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin with her partner, Thomas Donnery.
Realising she would not make it on time, Ms Balfe asked Mr Donnery to pull in to a Topaz station in Lissenhall, Swords. She thought her waters were about to break, but minutes later gave birth to a 7lb 13oz girl. Ms Balfe had been sent home from the maternity hospital the previous day because, she said, she was only 3cm dilated.
“I had a rough night that night but had no labour pains. At 5.30pm I said to Thomas: ‘I think this is it’. At that point my contractions were coming six minutes apart,” she said. By 7.45pm the couple were in the car and on the way to the hospital. “It was only in the car that I realised that everything was happening much too quickly,” she added.
“As it happens, I had worked at the garage and when I saw it was coming up, I asked Thomas to pull in. I thought I needed to go to the toilet. Once we were there, I knew something was happening so I asked him to call an ambulance.”
He reached for his phone but realised he’d left it in the car. He rushed to ask staff to make the call but by the time he got back less than a minute later his first child had been born and was screaming the place down.
“I looked down and saw the top of her head,” Ms Balfe said. “I did one push and the head came out. After another push she came out completely and I caught her in my arms.” The couple checked baby Katie Rose’s vital signs, made sure she was “properly pink” and crying loudly enough and wrapped her in a hoodie to keep her warm.
The delivery was free of complications but the immediate aftermath was not. Almost as soon as Katie Rose had drawn her first breath the umbilical cord became tangled around her and her mother’s legs. A fire brigade arrived and a fireman cut the cord.
“They couldn’t believe how calm I was,” said Ms Balfe, “but as soon as I felt the head, I knew I had to relax.” Mr Donnery said he too was calm. “I only started panicking when we got to the hospital,” he said.
The couple returned to the scene yesterday where Topaz retail director Frank Gleeson presented Katie Rose with a necklace and bracelet made of Topaz stones – by happy coincidence, the birth stone for the month of November.
