A Fife mother who gave birth in a lay-by has been reunited with the paramedics who helped her deliver her second child on the anniversary of her brother’s death.
Oakley’s Keryn Laver, who has a son Torin, was due to give birth to her second child on March 11 last year.
However, at around 8pm on March 7 with husband Jules beside her, the 39-year-old phoned Victoria Hospital to say she was having contractions two minutes apart.
She was told to get to hospital fast so she called a babysitter, urging them to rush.
Twenty minutes later her waters broke as she was getting into the car and soon afterwards, the couple pulled into a layby near the Carnock Inn and Jules called 999.
“They could hear me in the background. I was in the front seat and I still had my jeans on.”
A Scottish Ambulance Service team soon arrived and as soon as Dunfermline-based paramedics Andrew Paterson and Richard Garside put her on a stretcher the baby’s head was out.
On their first job of the night, they helped deliver the 8lb 6oz healthy boy at 9.03pm.
Keryn added: “Holding this little baby, I was full of joy.
“I think for my husband it was a huge relief that he did not have to deliver it.”
Keryn said it was a “totally different experience” to the birth of her first child which was a long labour.
“I prefer a quick birth,” she said.
She praised the crew for their support and help.
Andrew also gave Keldan a knitted beanie, made by the paramedic’s grandmother, and kept in the back of the ambulance for such occasions.
Last week was the first time Keldan had met the crew though Keryn had sent them a thank you card.
Keryn said: “It was great to see Richard and Andy again.
“It was a very, very memorable birth and I am absolutely pleased it turned out the way it did.
“We are lucky it was very straightforward.”
Richard, who has since been seconded to Helimed 76 as an air ambulance paramedic, said: “It was our first job of the night.
“As the patient was in a car, in a layby, in labour we knew the birth was imminent so we got there quickly.”
They were just in time to get Keryn into the ambulance for the birth.
“A couple of minutes slower and the baby would have been born in the car foot well.”
Anniversary of a tragedy
Keldan’s birth came on the anniversary of the day her brother, Cedric, tragically passed away after a sailing accident in 2009.
Now the Oakley mum said March 7 has a different meaning these days.
“It changes a bitter day and turns it into a happy day.
“Every time his birthday comes around, we will tell the story – it will be told at his 21st birthday,” she said.
In memory of her brother, Keryn named her second child Keldan Cedric Laver.
