The parents of a pregnant woman believed she was being a “drama queen” before she gave birth in a petrol station beside a post office.
Little Michael Daithi O’Flaherty was born in the forecourt of Elm Court Service Station and Post Office in Ballyneety, Co Limerick on Monday morning, September 21.
Dennika, 24 from Kilmallock, her partner Michael, and mum and dad Antoinette and Stephen were driving to the University Maternity Hospital at the time.
But her parents didn’t believe the baby was crowning as she was “so dramatic” before the birth of her first child, Willow, now 20 months.
“I was saying to them, ‘He is coming, I can feel it’, Dennika explained.
“That’s when they stopped the car. We happened to be in Ballyneety and the petrol station was right there.
“I was in the backseat. My mum got out, opened my door and his head was there. She just caught him. It was so mad. Anything could have gone wrong. She put him onto my chest and we drove straight to the maternity.”
Michael Daithi weighed in at a very healthy 6lbs 15oz.
The mum-of-two thinks they were in Elm Court Service Station for less than five minutes.
A customer told staff that a baby was being born but before they could offer assistance the family had gone again.
Dennika said she started to feel contractions at around 6.30am when she went down for breakfast.
She recalled: “I was getting kind of pressure over a couple of days. Then that morning I knew it was contractions and I started timing them.
“With my first child Willow it took me all day so I said I’ll go up, have a shower and get things sorted for Willow before I do go in.
“All of a sudden it all just started coming so fast. I was like, ‘Lads, we need to go right now!’”.
She said her mother was there when she was going into labour with Willow, aged 20 months.
“Mam said, ‘You were so dramatic the first time we just thought you were being the same this time’. They thought it was just a case of driving in and getting me to the hospital. They didn’t believe me. Dad Stephen drove the Skoda while partner Michael was in the back with her.
“I was pulling onto the back of the driver’s headrest and squeezing Michael’s knee. I was screaming in the car, ‘What am I going to do? Get me to the maternity!’.
“I thought I needed to be a certain amount of centimetres so I could get an epidural and if I passed that I was going to feel every bit of pain. Unbeknownst to myself I was going through all the pain I could have been going through.”
Dennika said it took about 30 seconds for the baby to start crying.
“It was the longest 30 seconds of my life.”
Michael was understandably shocked by the whole experience.
“He was standing there just looking and he didn’t know what to do. Then all of a sudden he just broke down.”
The family decided not to call an ambulance and continued on their journey to the hospital.
