AS dairy farmers Jessa and Ben Laws are pretty used to what life throws at them – but when their worst fears came true on Tuesday morning the Gorae couple were left thanking their lucky stars.

Ms Laws gave birth to the couple’s daughter Astrid in the car park of a Port Fairy church, as their attempt to get her to Warrnambool for the delivery fell short.

Astrid’s birth is what many in the community feared might happen after the decision to suspend birthing at Portland District Health, though the couple stress they had already made the decision to go to Warrnambool – however the PDH decision robbed them of a backup solution.

Ms Laws was already used to having to give birth in Warrnambool – elder daughter Quinn (she has two older children, this was Mr Laws’ first) was born there in 2012 during another suspension of birthing in Portland – but given birthing had been suspended there this time, believed she had no option but to continue on to the larger hospital.

The couple had even packed an emergency roadside delivery kit.

But given they set off about 4.30am (about one hour after Ms Laws went into labour) that largely meant Mr Laws was driving at 80km/h to avoid the wildlife, and they were also hamstrung with blackspots in mobile phone coverage, especially closer to their Gorae dairy farm, 10km from the Princes Hwy.

“When we left home we agreed we’d make Warrnambool,” Ms Laws said.

“The contractions weren’t so full on, but the tempo of the labour changed at Yambuk.

“The contractions ramped up a little bit and you don’t have control over that.”

She garbled a message to Mr Laws to call an ambulance and then there was a nervous wait of what they believed was about three minutes as the Triple Zero operator connected them through to the service – “I remember it ringing and ringing and thinking ‘we’re stuffed’,” Ms Laws said – from when they were advised on what to do.

“We were getting there (Warrnambool) as quickly as he could but as we were coming to Port Fairy the Triple Zero lady asked us to pull over, but I said to Ben ‘no’, I was on all fours on the front seat holding her head in.

“Every time she was starting to crown I was pushing her head back in knowing if I let her crown there was no-one there to catch her.

“I had thoughts of haemorrhaging and tearing (Ms Laws has suffered those complications before) and being on the side of the road and all I could think of was trying to slow it down and push her back in.

“It was probably not the right thing to do but it was fear. I don’t even know what I was thinking.

“Thankfully having given birth before, when that pressure changes I knew what I was in for, and it was a matter of minutes.”

Mr Laws described it as “trying to stop a tidal wave”.

Another reason Mr Laws couldn’t stop driving would be familiar for anyone from this region that has to drive that stretch of road – between the swampy area and the ‘S’ bends before Port Fairy, there simply wasn’t anywhere to do so safely.

Mr Laws decided to head for the car park at St Patrick’s Church in Port Fairy, with local paramedics pulling in two minutes later.

“Ben ran around to my side, and I told him to get my pants off and then he came back around to my head because the paramedics had turned up.

“I didn’t realise at first but when I did I knew I could stop pushing her back in.

“Two contractions and two minutes later and she was born. After that it was a blur.”

 But before the ambulance set off for Warrnambool, there was time to remember one important fact that had been overlooked.

The couple had no idea what sex the baby would be beforehand, and in the rush everyone had forgotten to check.

“I remember calling Ben back saying ‘could you find out what she is’,” Ms Day said.

“He uncovered her and said ‘okay, it’s a girl’.”

The danger wasn’t over yet – the paramedics were worried about Ms laws haemorrhaging because of her past history but she made it to Warrnambool hospital safely – then the shock hit.

But Astrid was out of danger, weighing in at a healthy 7lb 14oz (3.6kg) and 50cm long.

However, the couple put that down to good luck as much as anything else.

Mr Laws said had they left home 20 minutes later, or had any further holdups along the way, they would have been on their own for the birth.

“We’re thankful we made it as far as we did and didn’t have complications,” he said.

“It definitely could have turned out very differently. It was just good luck.”

And Ms Laws said the Port Fairy paramedics told her that as the only ambulance in the town they were lucky they hadn’t been called out to another job.

The couple praised all those who helped, particularly their Portland GP Wladek Smolilo to the Triple Zero operators to the Port Fairy paramedics and staff at Warrnambool hospital.

“We always planned to give birth at Warrnambool (due to her past history), and I was familiar with the issues at Portland, but it was only going to be a backup for us.

“Had the birthing suites been open we would have gone to Portland and that definitely impacted our decision to go to Warrnambool.

“At the time we made the call we knew the birthing services were not available and we set off for Warrnambool thinking we would make it.

 “Labour is unpredictable, I might have gone 10 hours and got there no worries, you just don’t know.”

While Ms Laws was in shock on arrival at the hospital, the real shock hit as the couple made their way home with Astrid on Wednesday afternoon.

“Going past ambulances and the road trip itself, it really hit me then,” Ms Laws said.

“I was in tears, I cried for a good 10 minutes.

“It’s going to take some processing definitely, obviously the first 24-48 hours you run on adrenaline but coming home I did have a good cry and probably will a few more times yet.

“Normally birth is pretty full on, let alone something like that.”

So do the couple have any advice for the other local mothers who will be faced with the same journey over the next few months, while birthing is suspended at PDH?

“Leave early,” Ms Laws said.

“For the sake of having to spend a night in Warrnambool in accommodation, it’s worth it.

“I’d rather spend $100 than go through what we did.

“The risk of emotional trauma is not worth it.

“We’re pretty cruisy people and we deal with high-stress situations all the time but it’s going to take a little while to recover.”

Mr Laws said “never be afraid to call Triple Zero”.

“Probably the other advice is to stay calm.

“But for someone younger or not experienced in that sort of thing there’s an abnormal number of variables, even for us there were a lot of things that could have gone wrong.”

Ms Laws agreed.

“Try not to panic, but you can’t always control that.

“If this helps someone else, if we can avoid this happening to someone else, that’s our priority, that’s our concern.

“I know we’re okay but next time it might not be.”

Mr Laws said it also highlighted the importance of PDH.

“We have a regional hospital here with the facilities already established, it’s not like we’re asking for new things,” he said.

“The services are dropping off.

“This (their experience) just sort of highlights the difficulties of making that decision in that situation and assuming that risk.

“It’s something that does happen, and you accept that, but there’s also something that needs to be acknowledged and it shouldn’t be a decision that has to be made.

“We didn’t have much choice – the local was not available.

“We appreciate the difficulties PDH is having but this is perhaps something that higher up at the government level needs to be addressed.

“This could have gone 100 per cent the other way.”

Ms Laws was philosophical about the situation.

“We knew the facts when we made our decision and there’s definitely no blame for Portland, it is what it is.

“Thankfully it has been a happy ending for us.”