KZN mom gives birth in passenger seat

Cindy Botha was travelling through Wentworth with her nine-year-old daughter when she noticed a young woman limping along the side of the road last week, Southlands Sun reported.

“I don’t normally stop to offer people lifts, but something in me said I should. She was with an elderly woman and when I asked what was wrong, she said she was in labour,” said Botha.

She quickly got her daughter into the back seat of the car and helped the woman, who was about 18 years old, into the front passenger seat.

“I could see the situation was dire. The baby’s head was already visible, so I rushed to Wentworth Hospital.”

After frantically searching for assistance, Botha tracked down some delivery nurses, who came to their aid.

“By the time we got there and the nurses arrived, we had run out of time. The baby boy was born on the front seat of my car less than a minute later.

“I could not have lived with myself if I had done nothing. We saved two lives that day. It was an amazing experience for me and my daughter, who witnessed everything.”

Botha, who has been keeping in contact with the hospital, said both the mother and baby are doing well.

Another extraordinary birth involved a baby born at sea on Christmas Day after his Nigerian mother was plucked from a floundering migrant boat by the Italian navy.

The baby was baptised Testimony Salvatore in honour of the medics who delivered him, AFP reported.

The two-day-old infant, who weighed in at 2.7 kg, and his 28-year-old mother were both recovering in hospital after what was a smooth delivery in testing circumstances, according to the gynaecologist who oversaw it.

Read more: Migrant baby named after Italian medics who delivered him

– Caxton News Service