Daniel and Meaghan with their clan; Drew (4) holding La La, Jed (5), Baby Zoe and 18-month-old Zac.
By Tania Martin
MEAGHAN Briant never expected to give birth on the freeway but the delivery of her fourth child was full of surprises.
The Sassafras mother and ambulance call-taker is still finding it hard to believe.
She has talked many women through sudden births but never thought she would one day be in their shoes.
Ms Briant went into labour on Saturday, 11 April shortly after 10.45pm.
Her partner Daniel Noar quickly bundled her into the family station wagon and headed for Box Hill Hospital.
Ms Briant had spent months agonising over where to deliver her fourth child.
“We thought long and hard about it but we had all our others there and decided Box Hill was the sensible decision,” she said.
Passing The Angliss Hospital on the way, the pair decided that they had time to make it to Box Hill.
“It’s the first time that I have had a birth so quick,” she said.
Ms Briant said it took less than half an hour between her water breaking and the baby arriving.
She was kneeling on the back seat of the family car.
“I couldn’t sit down … it was just too painful,” she said.
It was as Mr Noar entered the tunnel on the Eastern Freeway that all hell broke loose.
The baby had started to crown.
“I was screaming at Daniel to stop, and he was yelling at me ‘I can’t, there is nowhere to stop’,” Ms Briant said.
“I could feel the head coming out.”
But once the couple got out of the tunnel they decided to keep going.
The baby was delivered a kilometre away from the hospital.
Ms Briant said she was surprised passing motorists didn’t call 000.
“I don’t know what all the drivers behind us thought … I was sitting up screaming out the back windscreen,” she said.
“I’m surprised someone didn’t think I was being murdered or something.”
Luckily the couple had already sent their other three children Jed, 5, Drew, 4, and 18-month-old Zac to their grandmother’s in Wantirna South.
Little Zoe Anita Noar, was born 12 days late and weighed seven pounds, 13 ounces (3.3 kilograms).
Following the dramatic back-seat birth Ms Briant was faced with a media frenzy after news of the roadside arrival broke. She was surprised to see it make the evening news.
“It’s pretty rare for something like this to happen,” Ms Briant said.
“Women are more likely to have babies at home than in the car.”
“I’m just glad it was my fourth not my first.”
