A MUM has spoken about how she delivered her own baby in the passenger seat of her car, while her husband was driving them around a roundabout near Stroud.

Naomi Smith-Wallace’s daughter Mia was born in a Nissan Qashqai, driven by her husband Stewart, just five miles from Stroud Maternity Hospital.

Naomi and her husband Stewart were rushing to hospital in Stroud in the early hours of Saturday, January 14, when baby Mia started to arrive.

The couple had been driving along the A38 from their home in Sharpness when, at the Whitminster roundabout, Naomi felt Mia’s imminent arrival.

“I took my trousers off and pushed the chair back,” she said.

And by the time the couple were rounding the Westend roundabout near Eastington – the one on the A419 with the Premier Inn, Costas and Shell Garage – there was no stopping baby Mia’s entrance into the world.

“It was so sudden, it happened really quickly,” said Naomi.

“I gave four pushes and she was out.

“I said ‘here she is!’”

Naomi had been at Stroud Maternity Hospital earlier in the day, as Mia was a week overdue, and the team had carried out a few ‘sweeps’ to try and get things moving.

“They said ‘we’ll probably see you tomorrow’,” said Naomi.

“My waters hadn’t broken and I was absolutely fine.

“I did the school run in the afternoon, and I had my sister’s kids over for tea.

“Then our other two children went out at 7pm to stay at my sister’s and we thought we had a child free evening ahead of us.”

But by midnight, Naomi was having contractions 20 minutes apart, and so the couple decided to head in to Stroud Maternity.

The contractions increased in frequency very rapidly and Mia was born in transit at 1.20am.

With Naomi holding Mia in her arms, and the umbilical cord still in place, Stewart pulled up outside the front door of Stroud Maternity Hospital.

“We’d phoned ahead and were met by a midwife and a health care assistant, all gloved up, and with a wheel chair,” said Naomi.

“It was absolutely pouring down. We didn’t have anything to wrap Mia up in, so we used my son’s jumper, which was in the car.”

Naomi and Mia stayed in Stroud Maternity that night and then came home the next day at 11.30am.

“Mia is doing really well now and we’re delighted to be back home together with the rest of the family,” said Naomi.

“Although it was a quite shocking experience, it probably wasn’t as scary as it could’ve been, as I’m a nurse myself,” she added.