Baby Joseph enters world on the back seat of mum’s car on way to Ormskirk Hospital

Oct 18 2012 by Jamie Bowman, Ormskirk Advertiser

AN OFF-DUTY midwife has been hailed as a hero after she delivered a baby in the car park of a Burscough care home.

Little Joseph Thomas was born on the back seat of his parent’s car on Saturday evening when his mum went into the advanced stages of her labour only a few miles away from Ormskirk Hospital.

Mum-to-be Gemma Jackson, 25, of Canning Road, Southport, had no idea of the drama to follow when her waters broke at 10.30am.

Gemma said: “I just carried on as usual and went shopping.

“When I got home to my mum’s in Mere Brow I had a bath but about 5pm I started to feel a bit of pain so I knew something was happening.”

Luckily for Gemma, her husband Andrew’s cousin, Jill Georgeson, was a midwife and she agreed to pop around and check on her condition.

After an hour it was clear to both mum and midwife that the baby, which was not due for a week, was fast on its way.

“I asked Jill if she’d come with me so we set off with my husband driving our car and Jill driving on ahead as we set off for Ormskirk Hospital.”

But little Joseph had other ideas and as the family drove down Wiggins Lane in Holmeswood, it became clear that nature was beginning to take its course far more quickly than Gemma expected.

“I knew then that it was coming and there wasn’t a lot we could do.

“My husband flashed Jill with his headlights and we pulled over so she could stay in the back with me.”