Baby's dramatic birth at Essex ambulance station after emergency stop on way to hospital

Paramedics have been reunited with the baby they helped deliver during an unexpected birth in the early hours at their ambulance station.

Baby Cecilia had a dramatic entry into the world, with her official birth place recorded as Chelmsford Ambulance Station.

Her mother Alex Rowson gave birth at the footwell of the car after an emergency stop on the way to hospital.

Just the day before in November 2022, she had visited Broomfield Hospital after going into the early stages of labour.

She was told to go back home and wait until the next day, when she was scheduled to be induced.

But by 4am the next morning, Mrs Rowson's contractions were coming too quickly, and her husband Tim called the hospital to say they were on their way.

They left their home but 10 minutes into the journey, it became apparent the baby was not going to wait until they got to hospital.

She said: “I said to Tim, 'you’ll have to pull into the ambulance station'.

“He went to the door and rang the bell to see if someone could come and help. The ambulance crew came out to the car, I pushed, and one of them caught the baby.

“They took her inside because it was cold. That was the scariest time, because although we had heard Cecilia cry and we had great help from the paramedics, we realised that we weren’t at hospital with all the resources a maternity ward would have.

“However, they told me that Cecilia had done really well on the tests they carry out on newborns, and that she was just a bit cold from being born in the footwell."

Mrs Rowson was then helped from the car and mother and baby were taken by ambulance to the maternity unit at Broomfield Hospital, where the midwife team took over.

After Cecilia’s first birthday, her parents took her to meet the ambulance crew who helped them to thank them.

Mike Sage, the paramedic who delivered the baby, said: “Crews at the station were delighted to meet Alex and Tim again and see how well Cecilia is doing.

“They've adopted her as a kind of mascot as her birth certificate states her official place of birth as 'Chelmsford Ambulance Station'.”

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