Durban - A young Bluff mother gave birth to a healthy boy on the back seat of her parents’ car while they were driving her to Westville hospital in peak traffic last week.
The baby, named Corey, needed a firm pat on the back to start breathing but, fortunately, his grandmother, Colleen van Wyk, who climbed on to the back seat to help her daughter, Chenise Anderson, was a nurse who knew how to handle the infant in the critical moments after he arrived.
All this while the baby’s stressed grandfather, Mark, was making his way through late Wednesday afternoon traffic flashing his headlights at other motorists.
When it was clear the baby was coming he did a U-turn and drove to Bluff Medicross, which was the closest medical centre.
Anderson had sent her mother a text at 5pm saying she had started having contractions.
Van Wyk told her daughter to monitor the timing of the contractions and let her know if they got worse.
They did and less than 15 minutes later Anderson called and assured her mother this was no false alarm, the baby was coming.
Van Wyk alerted the gynaecologist at Westville hospital to say her daughter was coming in, two days ahead of schedule. However traffic on the Bluff, where Anderson lives, was heavy and her parents took 10 minutes to get to her.
“I don’t think you can be in a more stressful situation,” Grandpa Mark laughed.
With the car still moving, Van Wyk handed Corey to his mother to hold. The four then continued to the Bluff Medicross where staff checked mom and baby and clamped the umbilical cord.
Once the check-up was over a healthy Corey and Anderson were taken to Westville hospital, where staff only had to usher them through the doors.
The Murcury