Mum gives birth in very unusual place

Rachel Finucane gave birth to her third baby in front of the refrigerator on her kitchen floor.

It was a stressful but exciting birth for little Aurora, who came nine days early and couldn’t wait for her mum to make it to the hospital on Sunday.

At 5am Rachel realised she may be in labour. She woke up her partner Joby Higham, who immediately rang his mum and told her to come right away.

‘I then rang my mum and she told me to time the contractions,’ Rachel told Daily Mail Australia. ‘I started timing the first two and they were only a minute and a half apart.’

‘My mother told me to ring the ambulance straight away because they were so close.’

Rachel’s local Maryborugh hospital didn’t have a birthing unit, and the Hervey Bay Hospital was 30 minutes away.

Just as she called to let them know she would be coming in to have a baby, her water broke.

‘They told me to hang up the phone and ring the ambulance!’ she said.

Her contractions were getting so painful that Rachel could no longer speak on the phone.

‘The ambulance told Joby that I needed to lay down right away as it was my third child, and I was most likely to have the baby quicker,’ she said.

Rachel laid down just ‘a few inches away’ from the fridge, and saw that Joby had turned ‘ghost white’.

‘By this time I was freaking out,’ she said. ‘I was thinking, what happens if I have the baby at home, what happens if there’s something wrong with the baby, what happens if something goes wrong during the birth.’

‘I could tell Joby was just as scared as me, and was freaking out just as much.’

‘My mind was spinning, but the pain of the contractions were detracting me from worrying too much about it,’ she added.

Rachel turned to Joby and told him ‘I think I need to push!’, he then ran straight to the front door and saw his mum Vicky Lynn McDonald walking up the front stairs.

‘Vicky came running inside and grabbed my hand and told me everything was going to be okay because the ambulance had just arrived,’ Rachel recalled.

‘I then turned to Vicky and told her “I think I need to push”. She kept her cool and told me, “Everything is going to be fine, if you need to push, push”‘.

The paramedics came up the stairs and Rachel asked a female paramedic if she could see the head, telling her she needed to push.

‘She told me “no, nothing yet” and then turned around two seconds later and said “yup, there’s the head, if you need to push Rachel, push”‘, she recalled.

‘Within two big pushes, I gave birth to a beautiful healthy baby girl on my kitchen floor. She was beautiful and perfect, she brought tears to my eyes instantly.’

It was an experience that Rachel said was both ‘scary as hell’ and ‘great’, and one that will surely be told to Aurora many times in the future.

‘It’s going to stick with her for the rest of her life that she was so impatient she couldn’t wait an hour to get to the hospital, she had to come to the world on the floor in her parents’ kitchen,’ she said.

‘But on her 18th birthday, it’s going to be an awesome story to tell her and her friends.’

Congratulations Rachel! What a story to tell for sure.

Do you have an unusual birth story to share?

Share your comments below.

Image via Daily Mail

19 Comments

- - mom94125 said
  - 02 Sep 2017
    9:17 pm
oh wow very well done to her! this would have been a very scary situation to experience but i think that this lady did a great job! i think that her whole family did a fantastic job actually. what a fantastic story to tell her child in the future though

- - june11 said
  - 14 Aug 2017
    7:56 pm
Yes, it is an unusual place but I am sure other Mums have given birth in some strange situations. Rachel’s contractions were so close together there was no way should would have got to hospital in a few minutes, definitely not an hour.

- - BellaB said
  - 30 Jul 2017
    7:33 pm
I agree that would have been pretty scary.

- - mom160421 said
  - 30 Jul 2017
    2:50 pm
A great story to tell and what a lovely name – Aurora.

- - taynik46 said
  - 30 Jul 2017
    1:38 pm
wow what a great birth story – so glad that everyone got there just in time – congratulations

- - mom71820 said
  - 28 Jul 2017
    7:58 pm
Awesome happy story. So glad everyone is well!

- - mom206279 said
  - 28 Jul 2017
    1:40 pm
A very special birth story! Hope she wasn’t the one who had to do the clean up.
- mom259610 replied
  
  28 Jul 2017 , 1:48 pm
  Dw I wasn’t haha ???? but am very thankful for my sister in law she’s cleaned my hole house for me to come home too
- - nadine_hill said
  - 28 Jul 2017
    11:05 am
Amazing story! So pleased all went well!

- - Ellen said
  - 28 Jul 2017
    3:44 am
Great story ! Beautiful and all natural, without medical interference… Congrats, glad all went alright !!
- mom259610 replied
  
  28 Jul 2017 , 1:50 pm
  My first two were natural no pain relief.. but I made it to the hospital with them too this one couldn’t wait ????
- - rachel1970 said
  - 27 Jul 2017
    8:28 pm
well that is a story to tell when the child gets older!

- - mom259509 said
  - 27 Jul 2017
    7:31 pm
Almost 6 weeks ago my husband helped me deliver our third child in the car on the way to hospital (we live 20mins away), we had no phone service so just keep driving all the way to the hospital with bub cuddling up on my chest!!
- mom93821 replied
  
  28 Jul 2017 , 6:17 am
  Well done – a surprise and very special for sure!
  - mom90758 replied
    
    28 Jul 2017 , 12:21 pm
    
    Oh! So special! Congratulations on becoming a mum again!!
- - mom112217 said
  - 27 Jul 2017
    6:33 pm
What a scary situation to be in,so glad it all went well!

- - mom93821 said
  - 27 Jul 2017
    5:25 pm
I have a friend that had her baby in the shower at home – it was all very quick and very much a surprise.

- - sars_angelchik said
  - 27 Jul 2017
    4:41 pm
My next door neighbour had a similar experience. She’s had 2 boys and both were such quick labours that it’s unlikely that she could have more kids due to the toll it took on her body. This is such a lovely story and will definitely be told for years to come!

- - mom90758 said
  - 27 Jul 2017
    2:05 pm
Oh! So glad that everything went fine. I would have been so scared to have to give birth at home!! Aurora! What a lovely name they chose!! Congratulations!!