Firemen deliver early Christmas present

IT MIGHT be a bit early for Christmas miracles, but one Dublin mother was yesterday thanking her lucky stars after giving birth to her third child en route to hospital, aided by two firemen.

May Doyle, 32, from Ballyfermot, was all smiles as she held newborn baby son Tommy Joe who entered the world in the back of an ambulance at 4.35am.

Wind and rain were lashing the ambulance, driven by firemen Ron Hickey and Brian Cosgrave. The dynamic duo are based at Dolphin’s Barn fire station, but became emergency midwives when Tommy Joe decided to make an early entrance.

May joked she would like to meet up with the men who helped birth her baby — as long as they are not too scarred by the experience.

She had been feeling queasy from just after 10pm on Sunday night, and by midnight, having contacted her sister, it was decided that an ambulance should be called. Eerily, her nine-year-old daughter, Kaoife, had had a premonition that the baby would be born that night.

“She kept telling me that I was going to have the baby tonight, which I didn’t know,” said May. “I think she’s a bit psychic.

“I called his father at about a quarter to two and said we had better get ready to go. I called my sister and asked her to give me a lift and she was heading to Disneyland Paris this morning and she said ‘no, we’ll go in the ambulance instead’.”

The ambulance was just five minutes down the road when they had to stop for the first time, and just a minute after resuming the journey it was decided that the baby was on the way.

“He had to stop the ambulance again, and with that the baby was born,” said May. “It was pelting rain. It was a miserable night. He was wrapped in tin foil and wet blankets. They had to cover him up as he was getting out of the ambulance.”

Tommy Joe — named after May’s stepfather and late father, who died last year, weighs a healthy 7lb and mother and baby are expected to return home today.

May said she would be delighted to have the two firemen around for a celebratory cup of tea.

“The firefighter, Ron, said it was his first time to deliver a baby. I scared him, I think, the poor chap.”

May also said she was concerned about having not changed her pyjamas before getting into the ambulance, and about her “Bridget Jones knickers,” but the unorthodox birth seemed blessed from the beginning. Not that she is keen on repeating the experience by having another child in the future.

“I think this is it,” she said.

Ron and Brian probably feel the same way.