There's a few better places to be born than on the forecourt of a Kildare petrol station. The hospital, for one, or failing that, just in the gaff, or if we're being totally honest, pretty much anywhere other than a petrol station.
But sometimes you don't get to pick - as one mother found out when she went into labour last week, but didn't manage to make it as far as Dublin's Coombe Hospital.
Instead, their newborn baby Ellie was delivered by ambulance staff at an Applegreen's petrol station in Caragh, Co. Kildare. Now, the petrol company are giving the parents, Naomi Galvin and John Fearne, free petrol for a year to celebrate.
"The ambulance crew was just brilliant, they were so calm and reassuring throughout, and everything went incredibly smoothly," said John on the dramatic birth.
"They're a credit to our frontline workers and we'll always be grateful to them. It wasn't the birth we were expecting but Naomi took everything in her stride, and we couldn't be happier with our new baby girl."
"We now have a great story to tell Ellie when she grows up and I don't think we'll ever drive past that Applegreen station without remembering that night."
Trevor McBride, Applegreen Regional Manager in Kildare, offered the family 365 days of free fuel as a way of saying congratulations to the new parents.
"To help the Feane family celebrate, we're delighted to offer them a year's worth of free fuel plus some extra treats and gifts for baby Ellie and her four proud siblings."
"Hopefully, our gift will help John and Naomi to show off their new arrival to friends and family, when it's safe to do so."
John told RTE last week about the dramatic circumstances of the birth, when the couple were en route home from the hospital before the baby decided otherwise.
"We got the all clear to go home, went home and on the way we got a flat tyre," he said.
"I went and got the car fixed pretty quickly, came back and Naomi said 'you know what John, there's a few movements going on here'."
"It was go time by then, so we made the decision that we were going to have Ellie in the front of my car in Applegreen in Caragh!
"It was just a worst case scenario, it was spilling rain, it was freezing cold, myself and the paramedic got drowned.
"We were trying to keep Naomi as comfortable as we could until the cavalry arrived and thankfully they did."
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Ireland
