The Daily Populous Thursday May 7th, 2026 evening edition
Authored by independent.co.uk and submitted by Pretend_Creme_7751

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A woman gave birth to her daughter at 60mph as her partner sped through flooded roads trying to reach a hospital in Cumbria.

Chiara Musetti, 28, was just minutes away from Furness General Hospital when baby Siena “popped out” as her partner, James Spence, 32, rounded a roundabout.

Throughout the 45-minute journey from their home in Windermere, the couple had to repeatedly stop their car to check that they could make it through the flooded roads.

Siena was born at 3.30am on 24 February, weighing 8lbs, and is “doing really well”, her parents said, despite her dramatic delivery.

Ms Musetti described the moment she gave birth to her second child in the passenger seat of the couple’s BMW 3-series.

“We were about 10 minutes from the hospital when my waters broke, then I knew the birth was going to happen pretty quickly. About five minutes later her head started coming out,” she said.

“I had to sit up in the chair, take my seat belt off and pull my leggings down. She just fell out and I had to catch her in my arms.”

She added that chaos ensued when Siena was born, two and a half hours after her contractions started.

“We’d been trying to stay calm through the journey but when she started coming out we were screaming.

“When we got to the hospital my partner ran out without any shoes or socks because he’d taken them off to test the floodwaters.

“He told them what had happened, then the midwives ran out to me. They couldn’t believe I’d given birth in the moving car.”

Ms Musetti joked to the midwives that she had done their job for them.

She was then taken into the hospital on a wheelchair where she delivered the placenta, and was kept for twelve hours of observation before being discharged.

“Siena is doing really well now and is the most chilled out baby, which is shocking considering her entrance,” Ms Musetti said.

Mr Spence described his daughter’s birth as “intense”.

“When the baby came out, there were three people screaming in the car – myself, Chiara, and the baby that had just been born,” he said.

“I didn’t keep calm at all. It was the most intense experience of my life, but worth it to see Siena.”

The couple say that their first child’s birth began prematurely while they were attending a wedding in Manchester, so they weren’t surprised that their second child’s birth also proved eventful.

Going_Native on May 7th, 2026 at 13:48 UTC »

I would have gunned it to 100. Better title.

JackhorseBowman on May 7th, 2026 at 13:35 UTC »

Of course it's a BMW.

Billypillgrim on May 7th, 2026 at 12:20 UTC »

Whose else’s baby would she have delivered?