A mother who gave birth on the side of the road on the way to hospital had the amazing event recorded by her birth photographer who was luckily trailing her car.
Corinne Cinatl, 29, from Bendigo in Victoria, welcomed daughter Matilda in the front seat of the family car as her husband and three-year-old son looked on.
But she was unaware that her friend and birth photographer Breanna Gravener, 28, had been driving behind the family just in case anything happened on the way to the hospital.
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Corinne Cinatl, 29, from Bendigo in Victoria, welcomed daughter Matilda in the front seat of the family car
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Ms Cinatl had the amazing event on May 21 recorded by her birth photographer Breanna Gravener who was luckily trailing her car
On May 21 Ms Cinatl woke up at 2.40am with discomfort in her ribs but did not think anything of it because she’d experienced the same thing every night for the past two weeks.
After getting up and stretching six times in three hours she realised she was actually being woken by contractions.
Ms Cinatl, who is a HypnoBirthing practitioner, felt her first contraction or ‘surge’ at 5.50am but she told her husband wasn’t sure she was in labour because she hadn’t felt any other signs.
‘After I got in the shower I said “I’m having another surge”,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.
Ms Cinatl got out of the shower briefly to tend to her three-year-old son Charlie who had just woken up and had three more surges in her bedroom while he supported her.
But as her surges got stronger she wanted to get back into the shower and the comforting hot water.
About 20 minutes into the 35 minute drive to the hospital her water broke and she told her husband Mishi (right) they needed to pull over
Ms Cinatl said she wasn’t thinking about the fact she was in a car, and the only challenge was labouring in the car sitting upright
‘I just thought I can’t get out of the shower it’s too comfortable in here,’ Ms Cinatl said.
Meanwhile her husband Mishi Cinatl, 29, had been timing her surges and noticed they were just four minutes apart.
He started packing the car for hospital and had contacted Ms Cinatl’s doula and birth photographer to let them know the labour was progressing quickly.
‘I thought I had more time,’ Ms Cinatl said.
‘Our Doula had told my husband to get me out of the shower since I was not wanting to get out of there, she knew I needed to get to the hospital.
‘Reluctantly I got out, and things really sped up, I could hardly make it from one room to the next without having to stop for a surge.’
The family got in the car to start the 35 minute drive to the hospital, not knowing that photographer Ms Gravener had made it to their house before they left and was following them ‘just in case anything happened on the way’.
After the birth Ms Cinatl heard a female voice asking her if everything was OK and was shocked to find out it was Ms Gravener, who had captured the entire event
Mr Cinatl was reluctant to stop the car as he thought they could make it to the hospital but Ms Cinatl’s water broke and she told him she could feel the baby’s head
Ms Cinatl was very uncomfortable sitting upright in the car, and at one point exclaimed: ‘I don’t want to do this in the car, it’s too hard!’
About 20 minutes into the drive she knew she needed to pull over.
Mr Cinatl was reluctant to stop as he thought they could make it to the hospital but Ms Cinatl’s water broke and she told him she could feel the baby’s head.
‘I reached down and felt a warm little head, I was excited and surprised at the same time,’ Ms Cinatl said.
‘My husband then pulled over and quickly jumped out of the car, he came to the passenger side and opened my door as I lifted my bottom off the seat and only just had enough time to pull my pants down to my mid-thigh before the baby’s head completely emerged with a gush of warm amniotic fluid.
Ms Cinatl said Matilda is healthy and ‘totally in love’ with her brother Charlie, three
Ms Cinatl said the pictures were more perfect than she could have hoped for
‘The next surge and her body came out into her daddy’s hands and I immediately reached down to pick her up and bring her to my chest.’
Ms Cinatl said she wasn’t thinking about the fact she was in a car.
‘The only challenge was actually labouring in the car sitting upright, that wasn’t my position of choice,’ she said.
Meanwhile Ms Gravener had also pulled over and grabbed her camera to run around to the passenger door.
‘Pretty much the first picture I took was baby coming out so not a second to lose,’ Ms Gravener told Daily Mail Australia.
‘None of us were stressed at all we were all actually really happy and it was beautiful.
After the birth Mr Cinatl called an ambulance and the family was taken to hospital where baby Matilda’s umbilical cord was cut
‘We could tell straight away that her baby was fine.’
After the birth Ms Cinatl heard a female voice asking her if everything was OK and was shocked to find out it was Mr Gravener, who had captured the entire event.
‘I was completely elated that she had captured that wondrous moment, a moment that still sounds fictional every time I say it out loud,’ she said.
‘It helped me to process the actual event as well.
‘It was so surreal that it happened in the car. It wasn’t stressful but I actually had to pinch myself afterwards that it happened like that.’
Ms Cinatl said the pictures, which have been posted onto Ms Gravener’s website thebirthstory.com.au, were more perfect than she could have hoped for.
Ms Cinatl pictured on Tuesday with healthy baby Matilda who is now six weeks old
‘I wanted pictures of the baby coming out but I didn’t want them to be really graphic,’ she said.
‘They’re so descriptive but really tame.’
The two women have known each other for two years, and Ms Gravener has taken Ms Cinatl’s Intuitive Birthing classes in the past.
After the birth Mr Cinatl called an ambulance and the family was taken to hospital where baby Matilda’s umbilical cord was cut.
Ms Cinatl and Matilda were healthy so they were discharged six hours later.
Ms Cinatl wants other mothers to know that if they find themselves in a similar situation it’s not necessarily a cause for concern.
‘If a birth is happening that quickly it’s very rare that there’s a complication,’ she said.
‘Complicated births are not quick births.’