A SHOCKED Chelmsford mum had to deliver her own baby in a moving car whilst her husband rushed them to hospital.
Amy Burton, 27, called husband, Gareth, at around 4pm on July 31 to say she was having contractions and thought she was in the early stages of labour.
Gareth, 26, immediately left his job at Essex County Hall, Chelmsford, arriving at their Boreham home about 20 minutes later, the pair made their way to Broomfield Hospital, expecting Amy to be checked out and then sent home.
But barely five minutes into the journey, Amy's waters broke and she knew baby Luca was on his way.
"I couldn't believe it," said Gareth, who works as a press officer at Essex County Council.
"When Amy first said she needed to push I was convinced we would still have time to get to the hospital and carried on driving.
"The next thing I knew she said she could feel the head and within a minute she was sat in the passenger seat with an entire baby in her arms and was saying 'we've got another boy'. It was unbelievably quick.
"It was just so fast, Amy was amazing. One minute she said she felt like she needed to push and the next thing she was holding him in her arms and telling me we'd had another little boy.
"We panicked at first but once we heard him cry and knew he was OK we both went into auto pilot really and I just knew I had to get us to the hospital as quickly and safely as possible."
Gareth had phoned ahead to the hospital before leaving and explained Amy was going into labour, but when the couple arrived clutching little Luca, they were greeted by a stunned midwife and a team of nurses.
"I wasn't scared at the time, I more scared afterwards. At the time I just did what I had to do and got on with it, any woman would have done the same thing, just try and get him out as safely and cleanly as possible," said Amy, a former PE teacher at St Margaret's Preparatory School in Gosfield.
"Gareth didn't get a chance to give me much encouragement, it was very quick, my last labour was quick too.
"He didn't really believe me at first, I said, 'the head is coming' and he said 'no it isn't' then he looked down and could see he was coming.
"As soon as we heard him crying it was a relief, given the situation, and we knew he was fine," she said.
As the couple were driving from their home in Boreham to Broomfield Hospital, Luca was actually born in White Hart Lane, which was a pleasant surprise for life-long Tottenham Hotspur fan Gareth.
"When it dawned on me where he had actually been delivered I was so shocked," said Gareth.
"The chances of him being born in a car, never mind in a road named White Hart Lane, are so slim.
"When I told my family and friends he had been born in White Hart Lane all of the Spurs fans said he was destined to play for the club.
"The more cynical ones claimed it was just part of a deliberate ploy to make sure he supports them," he added.
However Little Luca was named by his mum and not after former Spurs midfielder Luka Modric.
Both Luca and Amy are well and now at home with Gareth and the couple's other son Reece, 4.
