Brave Wiltshire mum gives birth in freezing cold car park

The birth of Baby Dennis was like a real life Call the Midwife episode for Jordan Corbett, who lives in Seend.

The 27-year-old was left clutching onto a bollard for support as she delivered her baby alone in the darkened car park of the Royal United Hospital in Bath, late on the night of January 25.

It had been a race against time to reach the hospital. “At around 8.30pm things had gotten really painful so I decided to call Bath,” Jordan explained.

“They said because I could talk through the contractions that it wasn’t the right time.”

But, as the pain worsened, Jordan called again 44 minutes later and was told to pay a visit to the pre-assessment unit at the hospital for a “check-over”.

Jordan and Craig, who was her birth partner, leapt into a car. and made their way towards the unit.

The pains steadily got worse and worse and, as they arrived in the car park, Jordan felt a sudden change, explaining: “I told my partner that my waters must have broken, or that I’d wet myself. It was a bit of a panic after that.”

She stumbled across the car park but could only make it as far as a bollard opposite the doors before the pain overcame her.

Where Jordan gave birth

Craig had dashed to ring all the buzzers at the pre-assessment unit but they were met with silence, so Jordan shouted across the car park telling him to run to the hospital’s actual birthing unit and raise the alarm.

“I told him to go and get help, and then felt the baby’s head move. I knew I was alone, but still tried to shout ‘help me’.

“The head came out and then I pushed the rest of him out and he fell into my leggings.

“I didn’t know then if should wait for someone to appear or try get towards the door. I put my arm into my leggings and cradled him there. It was so cold, about -4C, and it had snowed the day before so I made the decision to try move.”

An exhausted Jordan then inched her way to the door of the pre-assessment unit and rang the buzzer, and was soon met by her birthing partner, a wheelchair and a small army of midwives.

“They told me I had high blood pressure - which wasn’t much of a surprise!” laughed Jordan.

Jordan had been worried for the health of her son after his less than conventional entry to the world, especially because she has group B Strep, which can be a life-threatening condition for babies.

Jordan has also lost a lot of blood with her second son, and so was classed as a high risk pregnancy.

The happy family

But healthy Dennis, named after Jordan’s grandfather who died before Christmas, went home with his mother the following day to be with siblings Harley, nine, Harrison, six, and Darcey, four.

Jordan said: “I rang my oldest son to tell him the news and he was so excited! He said ‘I can’t believe you had the baby in the car park mum!’ He’s been telling everyone!”

The teaching assistant also highlighted the recent closure of the Trowbridge Maternity Hospital, which was shut in 2020 due to a falling number of mums using it, although many campaigners strongly opposed the plans.

Jordan said: “I would have been at RUH anyway due to the fact it is high risk.

“But I was born myself at Trowbridge Maternity Hospital so it was hard to hear it had closed. It seems silly to be closing units, especially with coronavirus you’d think they would want to spread people out as much as possible.”

Giving birth without the usual socialising with other mums or hospital staff was a strange experience for Jordan.

“You aren’t allowed to leave your bed unless you’re going to the toilet and usually people in the corridors would take a look at the baby, but it was of course very different and no-one went near each other.

She added: “You need your mask when you’re walking into the RUH, so I was actually wearing mine when I gave birth to Dennis!

Dennis and his siblings

"It’s quite the story, and I had to stop to take a picture with the bollard when I left the hospital the next day.

"Dennis is healthy, I’m healthy, we’ve been very lucky.”

An RUH spokesman told the Gazette: “Births like these are an extremely rare event for the Trust.

"We are really pleased that our midwives were quickly able to provide care for mother and baby – we send our congratulations and wish them well.”

 A Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire CCG spokesman said: “The decision to close Trowbridge birthing centre was taken back in January 2020 as part of a programme to improve and modernise maternity services across the region.

"It followed  a three-year period of engagement and consultation with more than 4,000 mums, families, staff and partners in the community to develop a new vision for maternity services.

"The outcomes were well publicised.”