Hard labour: Woman gives birth in Epsom Hospital car park

Helen Pierce, 33, from Coulsdon, gave birth to her first child Emily lying in the middle Epsom Hospital car park in the rain.

Mrs Pierce and her husband Nigel, also 33, contacted the Epsom Guardian to thank the kind strangers and hospital staff who rushed to their aid on Monday September 9.

The family at the hospital

She said: "I was walking across the car park and thought ‘I have to get on the floor right now and push.'

"I don’t think it even registered that I was in a car park. I just thought ‘I have to push’."

From her training as a London Ambulance Service paramedic Mrs Pierce, who was on all fours, at first tried to adopt a position to delay the baby coming out but then turned on to her back.

She said: "I thought 'it’s not working the baby is coming.'

Suddenly I was sitting there holding this baby."

Helen and Emily at hospital

It was drizzling when Emily was born at 1.04pm, weighing 8lb 4oz, and there was moment before she started to cry.

Suddenly people appeared to help.

Keith Spring, 53, who was leaving the hospital with his sister, Lisa Salmon, 43 from Castlemaine Avenue, Ewell, took the shirt off his back to wrap the baby in, while she did the same with her cardigan.

Mrs Salmon said: "She sat back and the little bundle of joy came out. It was like ‘wow, I can’t believe it.’ It was surreal."

An ambulance technician clamped the umbilical cord for Mr Pierce to cut.

Helen and Emily back home

Then an ambulance worker took Emily into the hospital to be checked and a male porter fetched a trolley and took Mrs Pierce off to a delivery room accompanied by other hospital staff.

Mrs Pierce said: "It was so lovely people stepped in to help. Then they all disappeared as quickly as they appeared.

"If they had not come to help us, she would have got cold, I would have lost more blood and who knows what the outcome could have been.

"We are so utterly grateful as it could have been a different story if they had left us alone or walked away.

“We are so grateful they came to our aid because it meant we got a happy ending."

Emily

Mrs Pierce, who was eight days overdue, said her waters broke at 2am and they went into the hospital for a check-up.

Then she went home to sit in a birthing pool in their dining room.

The couple updated the hospital on the contractions and set off from their house in Linden Avenue at about 12.30pm.

Mr Pierce, a civil engineer working for Concrete Repair Ltd in Mitcham, who drove the car to the hospital, said: "You obviously expect that you are going to get to hospital in time.

"It all sort of happened unexpectedly. I think you get to the point where the adrenalin kicks in because you feel a bit helpless."

The scene of the birth after Helen and Emily had gone inside

He said he was glad to be able to cut the cord, adding: "It was a lovely opportunity."

Mrs Salmon visited Mrs Pierce in the hospital on Tuesday evening to give her a card and a pink jacket for Emily.

Mrs Pierce said: "They were the first people in the world to keep her warm and they gave her a jacket to keep her warm in the future."

Sally Sivas, head of midwifery at Epsom and St Helier Hospitals, said: “We can confirm the birth took place at 1.04pm on September 9 at Epsom Hospital car park and are delighted mum Helen and baby Emily are both doing well and were so pleased with the care they received from staff.

“We wish mum, dad and baby Emily the very best for the future.”