Keeli Judge told how her husband Ian nearly had to deliver the baby himself on the back seat of their car after being forced to stop on Cuckfield roundabout on the A272.

Their baby Samuel was born with his umbilical cord round his neck as the couple rushed to Crowborough Birthing Centre in the small hours of Wednesday July 2.

Keeli, 31, from Church Road, Mannings Heath, near Horsham, said: "Ian had a look of panic when he saw the head coming out.

"He nearly had to do the whole thing himself."

She added: "The ambulance crew told me when he was born the umbilical cord was round his neck but it wasn't tight - it could have had very serious consequences."

She believes their ordeal could have been avoided if there were more locally-based maternity services.

"It really is a worry," she said. "As far as I'm concerned every town should have a birthing centre."

Keeli had been told to stay at home after her waters broke at 11.50pm on Tuesday night, but after realising the baby was about to arrive, they set off for Crowborough, where they had been hoping to have a water birth.

Ian, 41, an aircraft engineer, had to pull up suddenly only a few minutes after they had got in the car.

Keeli said: "It was all just so intense and so quick, I knew the baby was coming and there was no way I was going to stop it."

Ian dialled 999 and was given instructions on how to help with the delivery.

He said: "Once they started telling me what to do it was quite calming and you got on with what they were saying."

Paramedics arrived on the scene just in time to take over.

"If there hadn't been someone there I wouldn't have known what to have done," said Ian.

Keeli had been worried about the trip to the hospital after having her first baby, Merrilise, two years ago at Worthing Hospital, she said.
"When you are in labour the travelling is quite traumatic anyway."

"You cannot sit properly in a car, and I really feel for the husbands, they are driving down the road and you have got your wife screaming in pain.

She added: "A&E and maternity are the two things we need to get to in a rush and they are life or death," she said.

"And with maternity it's two for the price of one because if there had been any complications we could both have died."

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