A young woman has told of how she gave birth to her baby boy while in a moving taxi.
Ebony-Paige Blank gave birth to Khai while trying to get home after her contractions started.
The chaos began while the 23-year-old was in the city centre with her mother. She started to get on-and-off contractions and Ms. Blank said she felt pain.
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They soon became too much for her to handle and she told her mother she needed a taxi to get back home.
But as the pair prepared to make their way home, Ms Blank began bleeding. Managing to stay calm, she hailed a taxi and climbed into the front passenger seat. However, as the taxi started on its journey, her waters broke.
Describing the series of events that led to her son's birth on February 28 this year, the mother-of-two said: "I went into town with my mum where I started to experience on and off contractions. It got to the point where I told my mum I had to go home, that's when I started bleeding, so I rang a taxi.
"I got in the taxi and my water just broke everywhere. We got up to where McDonald's is in Derriford and my son's head popped out."
Aware that Ms. Blank needed to get to hospital rather than back home, the taxi driver immediately made a diversion and headed for help. Meanwhile, Ms Blank was at the point of having the baby.
She said: "Then I had to deliver him all by myself in the taxi. Luckily, I knew what I was doing because I have a two-year-old, so I've been through it before."
Ms Blank, from Barne Barton, Plymouth, said she had made the taxi driver aware of her situation before getting into his car. But driver Bobby Bailey, of Taxi First, was undeterred and allowed her to climb in. Ms Blank described Mr Bailey as being "really lovely" — and later, he visited her in hospital, bringing with him an armful of presents for her and her two children.
She said: "He was really lovely and got me up to the hospital right away — and he even got us some presents. He got my new-born son an outfit, got me some flowers and got my two-year-old daughter an Easter Egg and a card."
Mr Bailey also waived the taxi fare and all the clean-up fees. Speaking to PlymouthLive about the incident and how he managed to concentrate on the road, he said: "It was weird because obviously she was sat in the front and I knew what was going on but my concentration was just on the road and making sure we got there safe."
Explaining why he chose not to charge Ms Blank for a fare or the clean-up bill, he simply said: "It was the right thing to do." He added: "If you ask anyone I know, I'm just that sort of person. I haven't got kids myself, I have nieces and nephews, but to go through that with someone you don't know is weird. It just felt like the right thing to do."
Mr Bailey has worked as a taxi driver in Plymouth for six years and said this incident was "one thousand per cent" the craziest thing that had ever happened to him. And thanks to his participation a healthy three-week-old Khai is now at home with mother and father.
It comes in contrast to events in November that saw a mother receive a £60 cleaning bill after she had a similar experience in a taxi. The Daily Mail reported that Farah Cacanindin, 26, had just left hospital following a routine check for her pregnancy when she unexpectedly went into labour on a taxi journey home in Buckinghamshire.
Again, just as Ms Blank had, Ms Cacanindin delivered the baby herself in the taxi. The driver phoned the hospital to inform them of the situation as he drove back. However, having finally got home with her baby, she was shocked to receive a £90 bill — £30 for the journey and £60 for cleaning. She said: "I understand I did make a mess but it's a bit cheeky to have charged me.
'It was the quickest labour ever. My waters broke five minutes into the journey. The driver asked if I wanted him to pull over but I said to keep going as I believed I would make it before she was born."
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