Ben and Esmae Coleman with one of their two daughters Holland who was born 16 March 2017 (3.5 weeks early) in the couples car as they were on they way to hospital.
Camera IconBen and Esmae Coleman with one of their two daughters Holland who was born 16 March 2017 (3.5 weeks early) in the couples car as they were on they way to hospital. Credit: Supplied/Marie Nirme

Yokine parents get surprise on the way to hospital

Julian WrightEastern Reporter

THEY say a woman’s second labour is shorter than the first – for one Yokine couple, it was like greased lightning.

Ben and Esmae Coleman’s newborn Holland was so impatient to make her debut that she arrived in the front seat of the car on the way to hospital. Mr Coleman and his 36-week pregnant wife were getting ready for work on March 16 when Mrs Coleman’s waters broke about four weeks early.

“I grabbed my bag from the cupboard, bent down, stood up again and my waters broke; I had the worst contraction pain I’ve experienced,” she said.

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It was a race against time for the pair, who quickly bundled their two-year-old daughter Primrose into the back of their car and headed for Osborne Park Hospital in peak-hour traffic.

“Ben put a towel on the seat, my favourite Oroton towel of all things, the most expensive towel in the house,” she said.

“On the way to the hospital the contractions were just terribly painful but I didn’t think that she would be coming out.”

Mr Coleman was at the wheel, running red lights and dodging morning commuters in a bid to get his family to the hospital, but was forced to pull over, with the family of three becoming a family of four on the road.

“We got to the corner of Flinders and Morley drive and Esmae said ‘It’s coming’,” he said.

“After we crossed over Wanneroo Road, I think that’s when a head appeared and then she was fully out after Main Street. We pulled over at Waldecks.”

Mrs Coleman said her daughter Primrose took the ordeal in her stride.

“Primrose was in the back seat and I just held Holland up and said “Look Primrose, your baby sister” and she just waved with a dummy in her mouth,” she said.

“So then we drove through red lights to get to the hospital, beeping the horn, then we went the wrong way and had to do a u-turn then Ben ran in with no shoes, no shirt and all these midwives come running out with a wheelchair.

“And it was all a bit gross after that because they had to manoeuvre me out – the umbilical cord was wrapped around the seatbelt, so they had to undo that and I lost a lot of blood.

“It was like I sneezed and she just fell out, it was the most bizarre thing.” The Colemans estimated Holland was born at 7.15am. Mr Coleman dropped the car off at the detailer the next day.