Laytown lad's big Christmas Day tip for very special cause

The proud mum of a kind hearted Laytown boy who was born prematurely in a car on the side of the road nine years ago says her son’s fundraising efforts has given his confidence “a huge boost.”

Samantha Carolan not only delivered her own baby five weeks early from the front seat of her car in 2011, the precious little boy was also born en caul, which means in the amniotic sac.

En caul births are incredibly rare, occurring at just one in 80,000 births.

The Laytown mum admits “having no time to think” before little Caoimhin "popped out" and made his dramatic entrance into the world complete with amniotic sac on the passenger seat of the couple’s 06 Red Seat Ibiza at Colpe Cross on 19th November 2011.

Caoimhin who weighed just 4lb 12 ounces when he was born was diagnosed with a speech and language impairment that left him unable to talk until he was five having a profound affect on his confidence according to mum Samantha.

Now the youngster has set himself the challenge of braving the cold waters to take a dip in the sea at Laytown on Christmas Day to raise money for St Michael’s House, a facility for people with intellectual disabilities where his mum Samantha works.

The nine year old has been touched by the level of support he has received already raising over€300 of his€500 target.

Samantha explains how he came up with the idea:

“His dad had said to him a couple of weeks ago that we’d start a new family tradition of going to the beach on Christmas Day for a swim.

“A couple of days later he said I want to do it for charity so I said what about doing it for St Michael’s house and he thought that was a great idea.

“Caoimhin was diagnosed with a speech and language impairment when he was four and it affected his confidence massively.

“This has really given him a huge boost and can’t believe the amount of people donating.”

Caomhin’s entry into the world wasn’t without drama with Samantha unbelievably delivering the baby herself in the car on the side of the road if that wasn’t astounding enough he was still in the amniotic sac.

Samantha’s contractions started when she was on a night shift in work at St Michael’s House in Santry but after the hospital told her she wasn’t in labour she decided to stay put until staff cover arrived the following morning.

Feeling increasingly unwell the mum of three headed for home where her husband Kevin met her and without wasting a second's time raced towards the hospital but the journey was proving to be too long for the delivery.

The couple were just five minutes in the car when Samantha felt her baby's head coming out forcing Kevin to pull over on to the side of the road.

Speaking about the shock birth Samantha now also mum to Seamus (5) and Grainne (14 months) said:

“I was on work on a sleepover and I had pains rang the hospital.

“Initially they thought it might be a urinary tract infection because the pain was all in my back.”

“I stayed until cover arrived the next morning then I made the journey back to Bettystown where we were living.

“Kevin came home, got me down the stairs got me into the car and a few minutes into the journey I could feel the head moving down and I said this baby is coming and he said just put it back in!

“He pulled over at the carwash at Colpe Cross and as soon as he got out of the car and came around to my side Caoimhin was already looking at him.

“He just popped out, he was born en caul in his amniotic sac which burst more or less straight away and I lifted him on to my chest and he cried.

“I left work at 11am and he was born at 12.20pm.

“I never in my wildest dreams thought I’d deliver the baby by myself.”

Mum and baby were taken in the ambulance to the hospital where they were checked over and little Caoimhin was taken to the special care unit where he stayed for two weeks as Samantha explains:

“Initially they were concerned about the shape of head because they reckoned he was in position a lot longer than the time I was in labour for so they had to do different brain scans so for the first couple of days we didn’t know if he was going to be ok.

“My mam had only died nine weeks previously so it was a whole whirlwind of emotion.

“He’s healthy, he’s fine, we both came out unscathed, he’s very proud of the fact that he was born on the side of the road.”

To donate look for "Caoimhin Carolan's Page" on www.idonate.ie