Queensland mum gives birth on the side of Bruce Highway

A Queensland woman gave birth to her daughter on the side of a busy highway after going into labour 30km out from the nearest hospital.

Chris Broucek was rushing his partner Lydia Kirk, from Bowen, to Proserpine Hospital on October 6 when Ms Kirk noticed her daughter was beginning to crown.

‘I said to Chris ‘I have to push, I have to push!’ and he’s like ‘no you don’t!’, the now mother-of-two told 7News.

Chris Broucek was rushing his partner Ms Kirk (pictured) to Proserpine Hospital on October 6 when Ms Kirk noticed her daughter was beginning to crown

Ms Kirk said no sooner had Mr Broucek pulled over on the side of Bruce Highway than their daughter Layla Maree arrived.

‘He pulled over as soon as he could but at that stage she had already come and was on my chest,’ she told the Townsville Bulletin.

Ms Kirk said she held Layla close as Mr Broucke called 000.

He said paramedics told him to lay his fiancée down but he was unable to recline the front passenger seat in their car all the way down because of baby seats in the back. 

‘But I had a nurse’s kit and some blankets and I made a makeshift bed on the side of the road,’ Mr Broucek told the Townsville Bulletin.

Ms Kirk said no sooner had Mr Broucek (pictured) pulled over on the side of Bruce Highway than their daughter Layla Maree arrived

‘I couldn’t remove the baby because of the cord, I didn’t have my Leatherman or knife and had to rip the jocks off with my hands because they were expecting the afterbirth to keep coming out.’

Ms Kirk, who also has a two and a half-year-old son with Mr Broucek, said her first birth was also quick and she believed the second time would be no different.

An ambulance arrived to meet the couple on the side of the road to make sure Layla was ok.

Paramedics helped Mr Broucek cut the umbilical cord as his wife lay on a makeshift bed on the grass.

The couple are now home with their two children.