Mum who gave birth by side of road no longer "relives" heartbreaking miscarriages

A Newcastle mum who gave birth to her “rainbow” baby girl in a car on the side of the road in August says she no longer relives the agony of her three heartbreaking miscarriages and is looking forward to Christmas now that her "family is complete."

Earlier this year Laura Mullen(40) from Newcastle between Moynalty and Baileborough spoke of the incredible moment her little girl made a surprise appearance after her shocked mum was sent home from the hospital who told her that she was not in labour.

Laura described how contractions began when she pulled into her driveway and despite and her fiancé Richard Byrne’s frantic attempt to get back to the hospital the baby wasn’t waiting around and the couple had to pull over on the side of the road where proud dad Richard (36) dashed to the passenger side just in time to deliver his new born baby daughter.

The elated mum admitted “having no time to think” before precious little Aoife Margaret Anne Byrne “popped out” and made her grand entrance into the world on the passenger seat of the couple’s Volvo V50 R Design on the Athboy Road in Navan just off the M3 Roundabout on August 6th.

Laura also mum to Ryan (4) suffered three heart-breaking miscarriages before the birth of her daughter who she calls her ‘rainbow baby.”

Now the proud mum of two says she no longer relives those pregnancy losses now that her "family is complete.” She added:

"It seems crazy when I look back on the birth, I don't know how we got through it, there just wasn't time to think!

“Aoife is four months now and she is flying, she is sleeping ten hours in a row at night so I’m blessed really.

“We are really looking forward to this Christmas more so for Ryan that he will get to share Santa Claus with another sibling because I grew up with six of us running down the stairs in the middle of the night waiting to see what Santy brought us and sharing what we got.

“I can’t wait to get the tree and see what she thinks of it all.

“When I had the miscarriages I could be driving down the road a year later and I could literally relive the moment but as soon as Aoife came along that stopped.

“I don’t relive the miscarriages anymore but I do relive giving birth in the car, I don’t think I’ll ever forget that!

Speaking on the whirlwind birth at the time she said:

“I was 38 weeks and five days pregnant on Wednesday August 5 and I just had my last antenatal visit at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.

“Later on I was at home and I thought I could feel my waters break so I rang the hospital and they told me to come in so they could check it out.

“After tests, the midwife confirmed that they hadn’t broken, they didn’t think I was going into labour and sent me home.”

“As soon as we drove into the driveway at home I felt a pop and knew my waters were broken and started to get really bad pressure pains and they were coming in waves.”

Laura wasn’t in any doubt that her baby was on the way but says she could “never have imagined” it would happen so fast.

“We rang the hospital but I was told they weren’t contractions because contractions would take your breath away and that it was just the head moving down but I knew I was in labour so we decided to go back to the hospital.

“The contractions were really close and I was pushing in the car, we got on the M3 Motorway and I said 'Richie you are going to have to phone the hospital and tell them I’m going to have this baby in the car and to send an ambulance' so he rang but they said they didn’t have one.

“We got through the toll at Navan North and I could feel her moving down and I said this baby is coming now, you are going to have to catch her.

“Richard pulled over and literally jumped out of the car, ran around to my side and reclined my seat back.

“My legs were on the dash and as I was taking my pyjama bottoms off, her head was already coming out, the next contraction came and she just popped out!

“Richard caught her and put her up on my chest.

“It happened so fast there was no time to think about it. She was coming and that was it.”

“We had rung the hospital at 12.57 and she was born just before 1.06am so I was in active labour for just nine minutes.”

“I call her my rainbow baby, that’s what you call a baby who comes a long after having a loss of any kind, she’s a little miracle.”