A mom-of-four shared how her partner’s quick thinking saved their baby daughter’s life, who gave birth in the back of her mom’s car outside Lidl.
Hollie Lowthorpe, 24, gave birth in the back seat of the car which was parked at a bus stop opposite Lidl in Hull.
Hollie Lowthorpe, 24, went into labor – and she delivered her baby on the way to the hospital as it was rush hour traffic on November 19.
When newborn Verity starts turning blue within minutes of being delivered, her boyfriend Callum Wildridge, 23, quickly wrapped a shoelace around the umbilical cord.
His quick thinking saved the lives of both his girlfriend and their baby, Hull Live reports.
Hollie said: “I’m just so grateful to both my mom and my boyfriend for saving both of our lives, it was amazing and we are so relieved that we’re both OK now.”
Hollie has a son Lincoln, three, and one-year-old twins Grayson and Felicity. She said she had minor contractions at home on Tuesday morning but suddenly she felt like she “needed to push quickly” while on her way to the hospital.
She was just under four miles away from the hospital when she sat in a car with her mom and boyfriend. But heavy traffic held them up.
Hollie says her mom Sharon Lowthorpe, 50, did not want to take any risk of going through a red light at the crossroads and getting into trouble so she waited for an extra four minutes at the lights.
Hollie said: “My dad said afterward that mom should have gone through the red light because the baby came minutes later.
“Verity was then born but we were not out the woods just yet – she was in trouble. I was frantically thinking just breathe, breathe.”
“It all happened so fast but if it wasn’t for mom and Callum we would have lost her,” Hollie added.
“It all happened within minutes but she was going bright blue because the cord was wrapped around her neck and couldn’t breathe.
“We needed to stop the blood flow from the umbilical cord so Callum quickly used his red shoelace from his trainers.
“They talked it through with Callum and when the medics arrived, they said they both did brilliantly. I would also like to thank the ambulance team who came to the rescue too – they were so good – and it was thankfully a happy ending.”
Hollie had been worried about having a natural birth because her three other children had all been breech births. She was stuck into traffic, and her waters burst – and she had no other option other than to push.
“She just kind of shot out and the [umbilical] cord was around her neck which was worrying,” said Hollie.
“My mom came in the back and Callum got on the phone to the ambulance service who talked him through everything and he relayed it all back to mom.
“Mom took the cord and because she was turning blue, I heard Callum say we needed something to cut or stop the cord with and we didn’t have anything in the car
“Callum then got his shoelace off his trainers quickly and tied it about six inches away from Verity’s belly button.”
The ambulance arrived on the scene minutes later, paramedics cut the cord and took Verity into the back of the warm ambulance to check properly.
She said: “It’s a bit of a weird one because we didn’t even know I was pregnant in the first place. I was on the pill and everything and when I went to the doctors I was shocked when they said I was 22 weeks pregnant.
“That’s the reason I didn’t know when her due date should have been. You hear less and less about this sort of thing happening due to people choosing to have home births and water births at home.”
Verity weighed 7lbs 6.5oz following the quick birth has so far been a really good sleeper.
Hollie added: “Verity is all good now, she has been a really good sleeper so far despite her quick birth. She just couldn’t wait to get here.”
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