First Horton 2018 mum: We would never have got to Oxford

Sarah Allen went into labour just after the New Year fireworks ended.

She and her husband Adrian made the 12-minute journey from home in Banbury up to the Horton midwife-led unit and baby Joshua was born just 12 minutes later.

“When I went for my booking in appointment I was told they weren’t allowed to let women over 40 deliver at the Horton and I am 41, so I should have gone to Oxford to deliver or had a home birth,” she said.

“Luckily a consultant I saw said it would be okay to have the baby at the Horton, where my son Ben, five, and daughter Rebecca, two, were also born.

“Joshua was born only 12 minutes after we got there so I calculated that I would have given birth in the car in Deddington if I hadn’t been accepted at the Horton.

“The worrying thing is that he was born in his bag – the waters had not broken.

“I don’t think my husband would have known what to do and I was giving birth and just being carried along by events, so I wouldn’t have known either. Joshua could have suffocated.

“Since then, I keep thinking how many ways this could have gone wrong and how we really do need a fully-functioning, consultant led maternity hospital in Banbury – especially with the increasing population.”