WHEN mums-to-be prepare for the birth of their baby, they want everything to be perfect.

A crisp white hospital bed, perhaps, some soothing music and the reassuring touch of a midwife.

They probably don’t imagine giving birth in the back of an ambulance just off a roundabout on the outskirts of a city.

But that’s what happened to Kelly Malliagh when she gave birth to her second son Ethan along the London Road, in Headington, two weeks ago.

The 34-year-old, from Wheatley, had been two weeks late with her and her partner David Morgan’s first son Conor, six.

So when she started suffering a few abdominal cramps on Tuesday, July 27, she didn’t think much of it because the baby was due on July 31.

Ms Malliagh said she assumed she had just got a “bit of a stomach ache”, unaware she had already gone into labour.

She said: “Because my first son was two weeks late I think I just didn’t assume the baby was actually on his way.

“At that point I was very calm and prepared to go up to hospital and wait.

“But then the real severe pains started. I turned to David and said ‘I think the baby might be coming’.”

Mr Morgan rang ahead to the delivery suite at the John Radcliffe Hospital and was told to get there as soon as possible.

But the couple then discovered their car had a flat tyre so they had to call for an ambulance.

Ms Malliagh said: “The ambulance control room told David to stay on the phone, just in case he had to deliver the baby.

“Thank God a crew turned up.”

The couple jumped into the ambulance to make their way to the hospital – but didn’t make it in time.

En route, Ms Malliagh signalled for the crew to pull over. She said: “I told them the baby was coming.

“The paramedic told the ambulance to pull over and that’s where I gave birth to Ethan, right outside the off-licence.

“It took about 10 seconds.

“It was just so quick. We discovered later Ethan was the first baby the paramedic had delivered.

“But it didn’t bother me, I was just glad he was with me. Without him David could have been the one delivering Ethan.”

She added: “We both just want to say thanks to the paramedic who came to help us.

“I had quite a difficult labour with my first son.

“So if you gave me the choice between giving birth at the side of the road within 10 seconds or going through hours in a hospital, I would take the side of the road any day!”

l As reported in last Wednesday’s Oxford Mail, Gemma Fillary and her husband Stephen of Brome Way, Carterton, were also taken by surprise by their baby Lucie’s swift arrival on July 28.

It took just 24 minutes for the 28-year-old to give birth to her second child, surrounded by family members, on her mum’s bed in Witney.

The Tomlinson family were also ‘in transit’ when mum Emily, 29, from Wheatley, gave birth in January.

Their ambulance had to pull up outside Reading Football Club’s Madejski Stadium so paramedics could deliver baby Sophie.