‘It felt surreal’ Mum delivers her own baby on the side of the highway

"It felt so incredibly surreal."

A Canadian couple had to deliver their second child on the side of the road while en-route to the hospital, just a few minutes after the mum's water broke. Heidi and Joe Rand  were headed to the hospital in the early hours of Monday morning - but her labour progressed faster than the couple were expecting. Heidi's water broke when they were still 25 minutes away from the hospital in Ontario, Canada - and felt her daughter's head appear shortly after. Joe pulled the car over to the side of the road, and little Mila arrived moments later, weighing a healthy seven-pound, eight-ounces. According to the Toronto Star, the mum-of-two told Metroland:

"It felt so incredibly surreal. "My head was in two places. One, I'm thinking, 'Is this really happening in my car?' But then, your instincts kick in and you're literally doing everything you can to keep your baby safe. "It’s a miracle … she’s safe, healthy and happy.”

https://twitter.com/rand_joe/status/955490509857857537 Joe quickly gathered all the clothes he could to keep the newborn warm, including the shirt off his back. And, following the advice from a paramedic who coached him over the phone, he used his shoelace to tie off the umbilical cord. He told the publication:

“It’s been joked about on social (media) that we should nickname her Shoelace or Lacey. (The delivery) was like, ‘What the hell?’ “Heidi was like the QB taking the ball from the centre, pulling onto her chest. To think of everything Heidi went through, she did a tremendous job."

Milan was already more than a week later, so the couple were a little bit on edge on Sunday after Heidi's contractions began. When they first began, they were frequent but irregular - which left Heidi wondering if she would need to wait a little longer before heading to the hospital. But when she rang her midwife, she was told "'Yeah, this is it'" - and the couple went off to the hospital. According to Global News, paramedics arrived at the scene within 10 minutes of Joe's phone call and brought the family to the nearest hospital.