Father locked out of his car as his wife goes into labour inside

A father was locked out of his Land Rover as his wife went into labour in the passenger seat. Jason and Barbara Aitken were driving to hospital in the Borders when they realised they would not make it and stopped at the side of the road. However, when Mr Aitken got out to go his wife's aid, she accidentally triggered the central locking.

They then lost their car keys in the dark before eventually finding them and safely delivering baby Struan. The incident happened last Sunday at the side of the A72 near Clovenfords. The couple had set out from their West Linton home but realised they would not make it to the Borders General Hospital near Melrose before Struan arrived.

Mr Aitken pulled over and got out of the car, but as he headed for the passenger's door his wife accidentally locked him out, just as the child's head started to emerge. She then reached over and pulled the car keys out of the ignition but dropped them out the window, forcing her husband to scramble around in the dark to find them. However, he eventually found the keys and baby Struan was delivered safely, weighing seven pounds.



Mrs Aitken said she could see the funny side now but admitted it had been something of a nightmare at the time. She said: "I'm not sure how I managed it, but I somehow managed to turn myself around and reach over to the driver's side and pull the keys out of the ignition and then drop them out the window to Jason. But he didn't catch them and they dropped onto the ground in the dark.

"It was awful, Jason was screaming at me 'where are the keys?' and I was screaming back that I had no idea." Mr Aitken finally managed to open the door just in time to see his new son be born.

But the drama did not end there, as Struan was born with the umbilical cord wrapped round his neck. Mr Aitken said: "I was on the phone to a paramedic by this point, and we managed to unwrap the cord and drive as fast as we could to Galashiels where we were met by an ambulance and taken to the hospital." Fortunately, their baby suffered no adverse effects due to his unusual birth.