A mother who gave birth at the side of the road after a car crash has thanked passers-by who helped deliver her baby.
The incident happened on Wednesday night in what were described as very foggy and cold conditions, with the temperatures below freezing.
The woman, a mother of three, was driving from Carlow to the hospital in Kilkenny after 7.30pm on Wednesday evening when she started going into labour and crashed into a roundabout on the outskirts of the city.
Baby girl delivered on the side of a road in Kilkennyhttps://t.co/0GKbJTYoC4
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) November 27, 2014
A number of passers-by stopped, including Eamonn and Mae Doyle from Kilkenny city.
Eamonn Doyle, a retired Garda, that another young man who had come upon the scene told him the woman was going to have a baby.
Mae Doyle, who has never done anything like this before, made her way over to the car. The driver’s door was open and the woman was lying back across the passenger seat.
She told Mrs Doyle: “Get ready to catch my baby”.
Mae Doyle put out her hands and says the baby popped into her arms, crying out loud.
She told the woman the baby was fine, that it was a girl and that everything would be okay.
They managed to find a blanket and wrapped the baby as best they could.
The umbilical cord was still attached as they waited for an ambulance.
Eamonn Doyle had phoned an ambulance, which they say came nearly 20 minutes after the initial call. The ambulance crew took the woman and the baby to hospital.
The little girl suffered mild hypothermia and is safe and well in St Lukes in Kilkenny.
Her mother is said to be very grateful for those that helped deliver her seven pound little girl, who has not yet been named.