Delivery vroom (From Your Local Guardian)

Man delivers wife's baby in car

1:53pm Friday 7th August 2009 in Richmond By Chris Wickham

A husband delivered his wife’s baby at the side of the road after they got stuck in traffic during a dash to hospital.

Mandy Wright, 34, was forced to give birth to Phoebe May in the front of her husband Clive’s Ford C-Max, after going into labour three-and-a-half weeks early.

With the couple some way from Kingston Hospital, Mr Wright stepped in to deliver the speedy new arrival.

Mrs Wright said the couple got to Seymour Road, close to Hampton Wick station, before they were forced to pull over and call the emergency services.

But when paramedics got stuck in the same traffic, they had to talk Mr Wright through the delivery over the phone.

Mr Wright, 35, said: “I put the seat back and we were trying to delay the birth but the next time I looked down there was a head and she seemed to be looking at me.

"The next contraction came and out she came. I had to put the phone down because I needed two hands.”

But Mr Wright said he wasn’t daunted by the experience.

He said: “It was a little bit scary. It was like someone talking you through trying to fix a PC.

“I felt a bit detached from the reality of it.

“If it wasn’t for the emergency services, I do not know what would have happened.”

Phoebe was due last Friday and Mrs Wright said when she started having contractions she assumed they were practice ones.

Mr Wright came home from his job with publisher Haymarket at 6pm and found his wife, who owns and runs a Music Bugs toddlers’ music class franchise, in agony so they set off for the hospital.

“We got past the Landmark Arts centre and I felt my waters break,” said Mrs Wright, of The Grove in Teddington.

“The Hampton Court Flower Show was on and the traffic was stuck.

"Clive was trying to drive through but we had to pull over.”

She added: “He got on the phone to the emergency services and they told him what he needed to do.

“The paramedics were stuck in traffic and pulled up about 15 minutes later, but she was safe and well so it was a very happy ending.

“Clive didn’t want to be at the business end during the birth but he realised there was no getting out of it.”

Despite her unexpected arrival in the car, Mrs Wright said little Phoebe was doing well.

“She’s lovely,” she added.

“We had a couple of days in hospital but that gave Clive a chance to get ready at home. It was dramatic but it wasn’t traumatic.”

Mr Wright added: “It was a shared experience.”