Midwives on call as baby boy delivered in back of car

It was a case of ‘Call the Midwife’, not once but twice.

A reunion was held yesterday between a couple whose baby arrived unexpectedly on the side of a Co Cork road and two gardaí who came to help them.

Last week Jozefina Bartosova, 20, went into labour in the village of Clondulane, near Fermoy.

Her partner, Niall Murphy, 23, immediately called her sister, Daniella, to get a car to bring them to CUMH.

However, at around 11pm in the village of Rathcormac, baby Daniel decided to ‘gatecrash’ the world.

At this stage Niall got out of the car and managed to flag down a passing garda patrol car, containing Fermoy-based gardaí Joanne Waterman and John Coffey. Joanne immediately rang her sister, Amy O’Brien, who is a midwife, and she relayed what should be done.

“It all happened within four to five minutes,” Joanne said.

As soon as little Daniel emerged, it was the turn of another trained midwife to arrive on the scene.

Orla Barry, who owns a local pub, was called by a person who saw what was happening in the street and immediately ran to the scene.

Extraordinarily, Orla found that she was now taking over from Amy, who used to work as a midwife with her.

Orla, who now works at a private fertility clinic in Cork City, made sure mother and baby were fine until the ambulance arrived about 10 minutes later and took them to CUMH.

“Thank God it all went well. Gardaí have first-aid training, but nothing to do with delivering babies. I rang my sister because I knew she’d talk us through what should be done,” Garda Waterman said.

Proud father Niall said he and Jozefina had named the baby Daniel after Daniella, who had sat in the back seat of the car helping her sister while listening to the instructions relayed through Garda Waterman.

He said Daniel wasn’t due for to be born for another 24 hours.

“I’d like to thank everybody concerned, especially Daniella, Orla Barry, Amy and the two gardaí who arrived at the scene. Mother and baby are both doing very well,” said Niall. Asked what he’d do if put in the same situation again he replied calmly: “I’d drive quicker.”