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  • 3 years ago
Lauren Ludwig, who lives in Binalong about 100km to the north-west of Canberra, was booked in for an induction at the North Canberra Hospital because there are no maternity facilities nearby. She was worried so headed to the hospital early, with husband Aaron, only for baby Ivy to make an early arrival, just off the Barton Highway, under the goal posts of the Murrumbateman oval. Mr Ludwig delivered his baby as mum Lauren lay in the back seat of the car.
Transcript
00:00 [Music]
00:24 Yeah, I suppose. We thought we were being paranoid, but that things were moving along,
00:30 so we decided to move into Canberra earlier than planned.
00:33 We had an appointment to be induced in the afternoon, but I think around 10.30 in the morning
00:38 we decided we'd leave early just to be safe.
00:41 And probably around the time we hit Yass, I was starting to get nervous
00:47 that maybe things were progressing more than we thought.
00:50 About five minutes out from our embatement, we called the ambulance.
00:55 And about ten minutes later, the baby was born in the back of the car at the hospital.
00:59 It's just the most beautiful thing you can do.
01:01 And I understand what all the fuss is about, with midwives wanting to choose her.
01:06 They prefer to have her do that all the time. It's amazing.
01:10 So yeah, physically, the baby, at speed, she came out quick.
01:18 Can you sit down please for me?
01:20 Holding the baby and seeing her cry for the first time was like...
01:25 I want that ribbon, I want that ribbon.
01:27 Touching in a way that you can't describe.
01:30 And yeah, it was easily one of the most beautiful moments of our lives.
01:34 [Baby crying]
01:47 It probably wouldn't have occurred this way, as beautiful as it was.
01:51 Not everyone is going to have a delivery that is going to go that well.
01:58 Whether it's people like myself delivering a baby, we've got no idea.
02:02 And the amount of people that are having babies on the Barton Highway,
02:06 because there is no facility for that whole region, is pretty worrying.
02:14 Knowing that we have quick labours was worrying for us,
02:17 because our labours are faster than the transport to any hospital.
02:22 I think Hawker is two and a half hours, Canberra is an hour and a half,
02:27 and the closest, which has small, limited services, is four units.
02:32 Yeah, people aren't going to get that lucky.
02:35 We should have gone in earlier. We were in the hospital just the day before.
02:41 We already had the car parked by a miracle, kids already had babysitting.
02:45 So we were fortunate that we had things planned in place,
02:49 that it could happen as soon as it came up, but that could just happen to anyone.
02:54 It could have been raining, it could have been winter.
02:57 We got a sunny day, light breeze, perfect, no drizzles,
03:00 but the next day, we aren't going to be as lucky.
03:04 Yeah, pretty concerning.
03:06 [Music]
03:19 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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