Mother gives birth in dramatic Uber hospital dash

Victoria White said she was shocked at how fast the birth was

A woman has described how she started giving birth in an Uber while dashing to a north London hospital.

During the eight-minute journey, Victoria White's waters broke and her daughter's head emerged.

At the entrance to Whittington Hospital, Ms White gave one more push and her baby - who has not yet been named - was born.

"It didn't quite make sense in my head that I'd given birth. You usually have a time to prepare yourself," she said.

Ms White first felt contractions at 03:00 BST on Saturday. She called the hospital but it was decided she would wait a little longer before going in, as the contractions were 10 minutes apart.

'No control'

By 03:45 they had become more frequent so it was decided she should go in.

"I thought I had time because it took three days from this point for my previous child to be born but about three minutes in to the Uber journey, I said to my husband: 'I feel like I need to push.'

"You have no control over your body at that point. I felt a pushing sensation and pushed and I told my husband that something's burst and that was my waters breaking all over the Uber.

"Just as the Uber was arriving at the hospital I could feel that I had delivered my daughter's head.

The family haven't decided on a name for their newborn daughter

"I managed to take about five steps from the Uber and managed to get to the hospital entrance and the receptionist looked at me and shouted: 'I'll get a midwife!'

"Immediately three midwives came running towards me. I think they brought a wheelchair and they said something like crouch down and I just replied, 'It's here, it's coming' as that's all I could manage."

Immediately afterwards Ms White gave one final push and her daughter was born.

"After that push there was just this silence: my body stopped, the pain stopped, the contractions stopped and I just turned to my husband and I think I just said to him: 'What on earth just happened?' We were both in shock. My body was shaking for a good hour afterwards."

Victoria White's daughter was born at the Whittington Hospital in Archway

She added: "The whole thing took about 10 minutes. According to my Uber app, I got into it at 04:15. According to the hospital she was born at 04:25."

Afterwards, her thoughts turned to the Uber driver.

"Usually you say, 'Hello, how are you?'... we didn't even have any conversations with him or anything other than me shouting at him 'It's coming, it's coming'.

"When we got out the Uber we didn't thank him for anything; we were obviously in a rush and we just left him and his water burst-stained car. I was concerned, once my head and brain had caught up - I hope he's OK and that it hadn't traumatised him."

Ms White's post on LinkedIn caught Uber's attention

The next day Ms White contacted him through the Uber app to thank him.

"I said, 'I'm the woman who basically ruined your car last night' - can I cover the costs of cleaning? He was like, 'No, no, congratulations, it was my pleasure, I'm so glad everything was OK, I don't need anything.'"

She added: "He grasped the emergency. He didn't potter around or drive slowly. He did exactly what we needed him to do.

"If it had taken two minutes longer it would have been a lot more dangerous because none of us know how to deliver a baby."