Surprise carpark birth at St John of God Mt Lawley Hospital

10 Aug 2020

Instead, his mother Cara gave birth to him in the front seat of her car in the hospital car park.

Around 6am on 9 July, Cara woke up to a shooting pain and husband, Tim, drove her to St John of God Mt Lawley Hospital to be seen by a midwife. However, while Tim parked the car and went to collect a wheelchair for Cara, she realised she was in active labour.

“I felt my body transition into active labour and shouted to Tim, ‘the baby is coming’, but he didn’t hear me and by the time Tim had returned, Koa had been born, Cara said.

“Tim ran inside again to find help and suddenly, a group of caregivers appeared and whisked me upstairs to the Family Birthing Unit.

“People ask me whether the experience was traumatic and I have to say no, it was quite the opposite.

“Koa is my third baby so I knew what to do and how to feel, I kept myself calm and applied hypnobirthing techniques to help with my breathing.”

“We decided to call him Koa because it means ‘fighter’ in Hawaiian, and he is just that – our little fighter.”

Koa was born at 33 weeks weighing 1.8kg (4lbs). After some time at King Edward Memorial Hospital he is now back St John of God Mt Lawley Hospital and thriving in the Special Care Nursery.

Cara is also mother to five-year-old Ollie and 16-month-old Finn who were also born at St John of God Mt Lawley Hospital. They are both thrilled with their new baby brother.