Mum’s joy after baby car dash adventure

A FRANTIC dash to Inverness by a mum in the late stages of labour ended in her baby being born in a surprise delivery at a Ross-shire hospital with no maternity ward or labour room.

Little Ryan Deeth came into the world just half an hour after his parents turned up unexpectedly at County Community Hospital in Invergordon when it became clear his mum Emma couldn’t hold on during the long drive from Tain to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness.

NHS Highland said yesterday (Thursday) that it was just chance that two community midwives happened to be in the hospital building at the time and they are "obviously delighted" they were able to help.

Dad Andrew, a joiner, made the last-minute decision to pull up at the Saltburn Road hospital in the Easter Ross town after Emma showed signs of being very close to giving birth.

He initially couldn’t find anybody to help but luckily a community midwife turned up shortly afterwards and the hospital staff took the surprise delivery in their stride and the birth went smoothly.

Emma, a primary teacher of Knockbreck Road in Tain, told the Journal this week that if her husband hadn’t decided to give up on getting to Raigmore’s maternity unit she probably would have ended up giving birth in the car on the Kessock Bridge.

And she revealed she was convinced the Invergordon staff would be able to cope with the out-of-the-blue birth because during the drama she remembered a Ross-shire Journal story about another Tain baby born there in similar unexpected circumstances.

Back in the summer of 2008 the Journal reported that Melissa Nimmons was the first baby to be born at the new-look hospital building which opened in 2005.

She was delivered by a staff nurse in a resuscitation room at Invergordon after her parents turned around during their attempt to get to Inverness when they became concerned they would get caught out in morning rush-hour tailbacks on the Kessock Bridge.

Most babies from Ross-shire are born at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness as the county does not have a maternity ward.

Emma was told that Ryan is thought to be only the third baby to be born at Invergordon.

The Deeth’s baby drama happened on June 14 and now Ryan is happily settled at home with his parents and big brother Callum (4).

Ryan weighed in at 7lbs 11oz when he arrived in a speedy fashion when Emma was two days overdue.

"My husband ran into the hospital and at first he couldn’t find anybody, then he found a nurse and luckily a community midwife had just come in," said Emma.

"She was joined by another colleague 5 or 10 minutes later, so I had two midwives and it all went well.

"They were great at Invergordon. I couldn’t ask for better care. They really calmed me down as I had been panicking that I was going to give birth in the car."

Emma (34) said they had called Raigmore’s maternity unit about 10am and were told to make their way in.

"It just came on a bit quickly at the end. It was basically phone 999 or turn into Invergordon and they didn’t know we were coming, we just turned up," she said.

"After we set off my husband knew I wasn’t going to make it and he made the decision that we were going to Invergordon. We got there at quarter to 11 and he was born at 11.18am. I don’t think we would have made it, it would have a Kessock Bridge job," laughed Emma.

"I remembered the story in the Ross-shire Journal about someone else having a baby there and I had that at the back of my mind."

Mum and infant were later taken up to Raigmore in an ambulance to get checked over before being allowed to go home.

The County hospital opened officially in October 2005 and has a 32-bed ward, a 12-bed dementia unit and a minor injuries unit.

NHS Highland was contacted but no one was available for comment.