A woman has revealed how she gave birth in the back of a Vauxhall Zafira Saphira on the side of the road – and how her mother turned midwife to deliver the baby.
Lorien Williams, 24, from in Morriston in Swansea, went into labour after her waters broke whilst she was cleaning up toys.
She felt the urge to push
Her mother, Hayley Williams, 54, sister, Deanna Bass, 33, and partner Luke Sermandel, 28, bundled her into the back of their seven-seater car and raced to Singleton Hospital, in Swansea.
But just 15 minutes after they set off on the journey from her home, Lorien felt the urge to push.
Deanna pulled over on a road near Tirdeunaw, and Hayley leapt out the car and into the back to help her daughter deliver her newborn.
Still 20 minutes away from the hospital, they had the emergency services talking them through their situation on the phone.
She was rushed to hospital
After little Harper Rae, now 11 months, arrived at 3.03am on August 9, 2022, the pair were whisked to hospital where medics checked them over and gave them the all-clear to go home.
Lorien, a former carer but now a stay-at-home mum, said: ‘I still can’t get over that it actually happened, it really is crazy.’
There was no way anybody could have predicted that this was going to happen.
‘If we had got to the hospital, my sister wouldn’t have been able to be in the room to see me give birth.
‘In a way the moment was bittersweet for us all.’
Lorien was heavily pregnant with Harper-Rae, in August last year when she invited her sister and her children over for dinner.
As she waited for them to arrive, she headed to the garden with her daughter, Ruby, three.
Lorien said: ‘I was cleaning the back garden and needing a rest, so I sat down on my daughter’s trampoline, and I felt a pop and then noticed my water had broken.’
She decided to call her sister for help.
‘I was all alone and scared. I started to panic over the phone, but she helped calm me down,’ she said.
Lorien’s sister, Deanna, then rushed over with her children in tow.
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Lorien said: ‘I decided to wait as I wasn’t in any real pain, but during those hours my water’s kept trickling constantly.’
She decided to head to hospital to have a sweep – a process used to bring on natural labour when someone is overdue – and was sent home at 12.30am.
But Lorien says she remembers being in ‘agony’ soon after arriving home.
She was then rushed back to the hospital in her sister’s car, alongside her mum, Hayley, and partner, Luke, a security guard, at 2.45am.
But they didn’t make it far and just 15 minutes after they had left, her mum had the baby in her arms – after turning midwife and helping deliver her.
Little child is now speaking
The incident wasn’t all smooth running though after Hayley and Deanna noticed that the umbilical cord was wrapped around Harper-Rae’s neck.
Lorien said: ‘I was really scared. They were trying to pull the chord, to unravel it from her neck.’
Hayley and Deanna managed to safely free the cord from around Harper-Rae’s neck and mum and daughter were then taken to hospital.
Lorien said: ‘It’s incredible how it happened, I got home from hospital at around 12:30am and then I had her at 3.03am.’
Harper is now speaking – saying mam and dad. She is doing amazing. If I could, I would do it all again tomorrow.’
