A woman unexpectedly gave birth to her daughter while her partner sped through flooded roads at 60mph, desperately trying to reach a hospital in Cumbria.
Chiara Musetti, 28, was just minutes away from Furness General Hospital when her baby, Siena, “popped out” as her partner, James Spence, 32, rounded a roundabout.
During the 45-minute journey from their home in Windermere, the couple had to repeatedly stop their car to check if the flooded roads were passable.
Siena was born at 3:30 am on 24 February, weighing 8lbs. Despite the dramatic delivery, her parents said she is “doing really well.”
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Ms Musetti recounted the moment she gave birth to her second child in the passenger seat of the couple’s BMW 3-series.
“We were about 10 minutes from the hospital when my waters broke, and I knew the birth was going to happen quickly. About five minutes later, her head started coming out,” she said.
“I had to sit up in the chair, take my seatbelt off, and pull my leggings down. She just fell out, and I had to catch her in my arms.”
Ms Musetti added that chaos erupted as Siena was born, two and a half hours after her contractions began.
“We’d been trying to stay calm throughout the journey, but when she started coming out, we were screaming.”
When the couple reached the hospital, Mr Spence ran out without shoes or socks because he had taken them off to test the floodwaters.
He immediately told the hospital staff what had happened, and the midwives rushed out to meet Ms Musetti. They were astonished that she had given birth in a moving car.
Ms Musetti joked to the midwives that she had done their job for them. She was then transferred to the hospital in a wheelchair, where she delivered the placenta and was kept for twelve hours of observation before being discharged.
“Siena is doing really well now and is the most chilled-out baby, which is shocking considering her entrance,” Ms Musetti said.
Mr Spence described the birth as “intense.”
“When the baby came out, there were three people screaming in the car – myself, Chiara, and the baby that had just been born,” he said.
“I didn’t keep calm at all. It was the most intense experience of my life, but worth it to see Siena.”
The couple explained that their first child’s birth also began prematurely while they were attending a wedding in Manchester, so they weren’t surprised by the dramatic nature of their second child’s arrival.
