Offaly woman"s road birth drama

An Offaly woman is set to have a happy Christmas thanks to the efforts of two Mullingar-based Gardai who came to her rescue after she began giving birth to a baby boy while driving from Turraun near Ferbane to Mullingar Regional Hospital in Mullingar last Sunday. Mother-of-five Kathryn Mooney set out from Turraun in treacherous weather conditions on Sunday afternoon when she felt her contractions begin. Her partner remained at home with her four other children. Following a number of close calls on the icy roads, Kathryn contacted Mullingar Regional Hospital to order an epidural and inform staff she was ten to fifteen minutes" drive away. 'It was a help to concentrate more on the road than on the pain,' she explained this week. Shortly after the phonecall, the baby"s head appeared and Kathryn was forced to pull over on the C-Link Road in Mullingar. When she failed to appear and ten minutes turned into half an hour, staff at Mullingar Regional Hospital contacted the Gardai and explained Kathryn"s situation. Garda Peter Kelly and Garda Yvonne Kilbane were immediately dispatched to look for the woman along the most likely route from Tullamore to Mullingar. They found her car stopped in the middle of the road and Kathryn in labour on the back seat. When the Gardai arrived at the scene, little baby Luke had just been born weighing 7lbs 4.5 ounces. Given the freezing conditions and less than clinical conditions of the jeep, the Gardai decided not to wait for an ambulance. Garda Kelly drove the jeep straight to the hospital while Garda Kilbane provided an escort in the squad car. 'For her own safety the thing was to get her up there straight away. The nurses then brought her into the hospital, she was put in a bed and the nurses brought in the baby and everything was grand. We were delighted to help,' Garda Kilbane said. Kathryn seemed unphased by the extraordinary birth of her child. 'I have got faith in God,' she commented. She seemed more concerned with the state of her car seats but she had a solution: 'My brother does valeting so we will have a job for him,' she said. Kathryn and baby Luke, who was due on December 3, are both in good health and returned home to their family on Wednesday.