Virginia couple deliver baby girl in Circle K carpark with the help of Navan gardai
Every pregnant woman makes a plan: She buys a buggy, knits a blanket, packs a bag, lights a candle – all depending on her personal feeling of comfort. None of these plans involve delivering a baby with the aid of gardaí in a Circle K carpark.
In fairness, even the tidiest petrol station is not the ideal place to give birth to a baby. But this is exactly what happened to Hayley Comerford on the night of 9th April.
Thinking it was Braxton Hicks contractions, Virginia local Hayley Comerford didn’t pay much attention to the tightening pressure in her abdomen. She had just said good night to her 10-year-old daughter Reagan and was waiting for her son Fionn to come home from Jiu Jitsu training. It was a normal Wednesday evening. Until is wasn’t.
“It was only when the typical backpain started that I knew it was the real deal.”
That’s when it became obvious that the plan to induce the baby the following Saturday was not going to be necessary.
“We had it all organised,” recounts Adam. For medical reasons, the baby was meant to be delivered in the Rotunda Maternity Hospital the Saturday, two weeks before its due date. The baby seat was going to be installed, the hospital bag was going to be packed, and the grandparents were going to look after the kids.
“Because of the hour of the night, the kids had school the next day and the contractions hadn’t really increased much, I was reluctant to go straight away,” remembers Hayley casually weighing up the pros and cons of a hospital dash. Then her waters broke. “I had a quick shower and Adam just threw a pile of stuff into a bag.”
The kids jumped into the back seat of the car, Adam took the wheel. Hayley tried to breathe through the pain, not to scare the kids “too much”.
“I saw from the time on the dashboard my contractions were only two minutes apart.”
Heading down the M3 motorway as fast as was safe, Adam was on handsfree kit to the nearest Garda station asking for an escort to the hospital. Hayley was aware now that the Rotunda in city centre Dublin was not going to be an option.
Adam was following the squad car from Navan station – just to be stuck at the toll plaza.
“The guards had called ahead to tell them we were coming but the barrier wouldn’t open for what felt like forever,” recalls Adam.
New plan: Meet the approaching ambulance at the Circle K in Castleknock so Hayley could be safely transferred.
Assuming the parked truck with headlights on was the ambulance, they all hurried out of the car.
“I don’t know how I got out, to be honest, but I was glad I wore comfortable leggings and a big cardigan,” says Hayley. All she remembers is shouting “catch the baby”, because it was pushing its way out.
“I ran to her, pulled down her leggings and there came the baby,” said Adam.
Waiting for dire seconds for the baby to make a noise, the parents held onto the slippery bundle in anticipation. A piercing cry finally ended their agony. The rush subsided. The reality of a newborn baby kicked-in.
Reagan emerged from the squad car where the guards had minded her and her brother. She was excited to meet her sister Éila. But the “best part was being in the car seeing all the lights”, she says.
“Fionn might struggle a bit more with this memory,” laughs his mother. The whole adventure surely has been the talking point in the community. One of the families in the estate sent their teenage daughters over to “hear the story in full detail”, a precautionary tale.
Baby Éila was born a healthy 9 pounds at 12:15am. She was planned. Her journey was not.