Sister delivers baby in the back of a car in Rathcormac
Aunts usually get to dote over the newest arrival to the family at the hospital, while the mother is resting peacefully, but Daniela Bartosova got to meet her little nephew under very different circumstances.
Jozefina Bartosova was due to give birth to her little baby boy on May 30, but the day before, her partner Niall Murphy and herself left their home in Clondulane to go to Cork University Maternity Hospital with Jozefina's sister, Daniela.
After making a short stop in Castlelyons to swap cars, as Daniela had come straight from work, they passed through Rathcormac on the way to Cork. However, Jozefina's contractions got so bad and were coming so fast that Daniela had to deliver the baby in the back of the car, as Niall relayed instructions from the emergency services who were on the phone.
"To be honest, it's still a big blur to me. It was very painful and very quick. I was terrified, there were no doctors and no hospital," Jozefina told The Avondhu, speaking about how scary the whole ordeal was.
SAFELY DELIVERED
Daniella had done a first aid course, but had never come close to delivering a baby - thankfully everything went ok, Daniella checked the baby out and made sure that the first cry was alright.
Orla Barry of Barry's Pub in Rathcormac used to work as a midwife and just after little Daniel emerged into the world, she was called to the scene by someone on the street.
"Jozefina's sister had the baby in her arms when I arrived, so I just helped to deliver the placenta, made sure there was no internal bleeding and that Jozefina was alright and thankfully the baby was a healthy weight of 8.8 pounds. It all happened so fast and he's a gorgeous baby," Orla said.
Orla works in the Cork Fertility Clinic and said that this was the first delivery she was involved with for years.
While Daniella was helping Jozefina through the labour, Niall had flagged down a passing Garda car and Fermoy based Gardai Joanne Waterman and John Coffey waited with the family until the ambulance arrived.
Garda Waterman said that she had never encountered a situation like this through her work before, but she was just glad that both mother and baby were ok. She had phoned her sister, Amy who is a midwife, at the time, but luckily Daniela and Orla had the situation under control.
Niall and Jozefina fittingly named their little baby boy Daniel, after Jozefina's sister, Daniela, who had helped to bring him into the world in such unorthodox circumstances. They wanted to thank Daniela, Orla, the gardai and the emergency service personnel - a job well done all round!
Published:
Friday 20th June 9:21am
