Baby born on C Link road

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 in Tullamore to Mullingar Regional Hospital 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 then on the pain,' she said.Shortly after the phonecall the baby"s head appeared and Kathryn was forced to pull over on the Sealink Road in Mullingar.When she failed to appear and ten minutes turned into half and 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.'When we arrived we found her on the C-Link Road. She was actually stopped in the middle of the road. They didn"t know where she was so we tried a few locations and we found her on C-Link Road. That was the reason they were worried about her because she rang to say she was about ten fifteen minutes away from the hospital, this was 40 minutes later and still no sign,' explained Garda Kilbane.'She had actually gone into labour in the driving seat she moved from there into the back seat of the car. She had most of the work done so we just assisted her and made sure the baby was alright. She was grand the baby was crying we got into the jeep and drove up to the hospital,' added Garda Kilbane.When the Gardai arrived at the scene, little baby Luke had just been born weighing 7lbs 4.5 ounces, 'when he started crying I just knew he was safe,' Kathryn said, adding, 'I heard the crying and I didn"t care whether a bus Eireann bus went past.'Given the freezing conditions and less than clinical conditions of the jeep, theGardai decided not to wait for an ambulance and 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. It was great to see the baby as well and she was delighted just to see everything was alright because once the baby was crying then we knew it sound. In the weather conditions I don"t know how she drove up,' 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 will return home to their family in Tarraun in Co Offaly on Wednesday.