The Sunderland baby who arrived in a hospital car park

Meet the very special Wearside baby who came into the world in a hospital car park.

Nurses at Sunderland General Hospital had to make a dash for the 1989 delivery.

For Janice Wakefield’s little girl was intent on making her appearance and just couldn’t wait those extra few minutes 35 years ago.

She was 6lb 8oz

So the 6lb 8oz bundle of joy was delivered by staff midwives Shirley McDermott and Sheila Hardy on the back seat of the family car.

The race against time began when 25-year-old Janice began to feel the baby was due around midnight.

Husband David bundled her into the car and dashed to the hospital.

'I was a bag of nerves'

He said: “I was a bag of nerves, as we got to the traffic lights outside the hospital I knew this was it as the baby’s head began to show.

“I knew I had to keep my senses. I just raced inside the doors and luckily there was a midwife there and a few nurses came running out. I’m very grateful to them.

“Both mother and baby are fine and they are coming out today. We laugh about it now but it is pretty unusual, ” David added.

Get in touch to tell us more

The couple had yet to choose a name for their new arrival when the Echo carried the story 45 years ago this month.

To give you more of a taster of the Spring 1989 news, these stories were also in the Sunderland Echo;

A magnificent £32,000 had been raised in five weeks by Echo readers for the Mother and Baby Appeal, which aimed to buy nine vital pieces of equipment for the city’s maternity unit. Neighbours Lesley Kay and Avril Innes, of Bletchley Avenue, Town End Farm, were fed up with life on the dole.

So they launched The Chatterbox Cafe in a vacant room and were kept busy serving hungry locals ever since.

Jobs galore on industrial estate

Around 300 new jobs were being planned on the Rainton Bridge Industrial Estate in Houghton thanks to an investment package revealed by the Inner Cities Minister Tony Newton. He said he was “particularly pleased” to give a grant towards the boost.

Venture Scouts in Seaham were planning to cycle 750 miles from Land’s End to John O’Groats - but they were doing it from their headquarters at Dow House where they were getting on exercise bikes for Comic Relief.

If you can tell us more about the 1989 car park special delivery, email [email protected]