AN EXPECTANT mum sent home from hospital returned hours later – and gave birth in the hospital car park.
And she had her sister to thank for giving her baby son the kiss of life.
Kirsty Brook and partner Mark Massey had rushed to Calderdale Royal Hospital in Halifax with her sister Michelle Brook-Lomas when the drama happened.
It was Michelle who was the star of the show, helping to deliver five-week premature baby Harry.
Using her baby first-aid training from her former job as a childminder, Michelle gave her new nephew the kiss of life and he responded by bursting into tears.
Three midwives then arrived and whisked the baby – 6lb 3oz Harry James Massey – to be checked over before he was reunited with his overjoyed parents.
Proud mum Kirsty, 30, of Waterloo said: “It was surreal. It was like it was happening to someone else. I just wanted to get to the hospital.
“I was overjoyed when he started to cry. We all were.
“It wasn’t the birth I was expecting.”
Her sister, who is now considering a career as a midwife, recalled: “I had asked Kirsty a few times if she wanted me to pull over as we drove to hospital but she said ‘just get me there!’
“As we were approaching the hospital she said she wanted to push and when I saw the car park, I just did a handbrake turn across four spaces near the entrance, jumped out and Mark raced in to get the midwife.
“Kirsty was in the back seats and I checked and I talked her through it. It all happened within minutes.
“When the baby arrived he had mucus in his mouth, so I wiped it out. He wasn’t breathing so I gave him the kiss of life, then he started crying and I gave him to Kirsty to do skin-to-skin.
“The medics came and the umbilical cord was cut before he was taken inside.
“I have three children but I have never delivered any until now.”
Shocked mum Kirsty told how in the early hours last Tuesday she felt her waters break and went to hospital at 9am.
She said: “They put a baby monitor on and checked me over but just said I had a water infection and sent me home about 2pm.
“The pains kept getting worse and worse and by about 8pm I went to my sister’s home and she suggested I have a bath.
“When I got out we timed the contractions at three minutes and phoned the hospital and they said to come in.
“We passed Huddersfield Royal Infirmary and didn’t consider changing the plan, as Calderdale were expecting us.
“I felt like I needed to push but I didn’t want Michelle to stop until we got there.”
Baby Harry was kept in hospital for five days and spent the first 24 hours in an incubator with oxygen and a heat lamp.
But now he is at home and Kirsty added: “He is wonderful. We are over the moon.”
