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Baby delivered in park by tree surgeons
Last updated at 09:52am on 04.10.06Giving birth was no walk in the park for Carmel Ohrwall.
As she went into labour there were no midwives, sterilised surfaces or hot towels. Instead, she found herself kneeling on grass being tended to by surgeons - tree surgeons.
Peter Carlyon and Ed Campbell-White stopped to help after they saw the woman in Richmond Park as they passed in their Land Rover.
Mrs Ohrwall, 43, from East Sheen, told how her husband Fredrik had been trying to call an ambulance but the operator kept demanding a postcode. "Fredrik was saying, 'Look, we're in the middle of Richmond Park - are you going to send an ambulance or not?'" she said.
The 7lb baby was born while his father was on the phone. There were no complications and the couple are now back home with a brother for James, three. "We haven't chosen a name yet. We're calling him Parkie," said Mrs Ohrwall.
She told how when her contractions began she phoned her husband, who rushed home from work in the City, and they set off for Kingston Hospital. "As we drove through the park the urge to push was just so great I had to say to Fredrik, 'Can you pull over'," said Mrs Ohrwall. "There was nothing I could do. I jumped on to the grass verge and he was out within a few pushes.
"A few seconds after he started crying. I was just so relieved. Anything could have happened. What a place to be introduced to the world."
Mr Carlyon, 29, said: "We were driving past and saw a woman on the ground so we spun the Land Rover round. As we got out, the mother delivered her own baby in her own hands. We got our jumpers and wrapped them round the baby and mother. I called my friend who is a midwife who told us what to do."
Paramedics arrived, cut the umbilical cord and took them to hospital.
Sara Lom, director of the Royal Parks Foundation, said: "The hospital phoned to congratulate the tree surgeons.
"Apparently, most babies born outside get hypothermia but this one was fine. We'll be planting a rowan tree on the spot."
Reader views (2)
What would she need "sterilised surfaces and hot towels" for? A birth is a birth, not an operation.
- Sarah, Doula, London
I used to work with Carmel - wonderful news and great to see something positive and fun being published. Please pass on my regards.
- David Sweeney, London
