A mum was left shocked after giving birth to her baby in the car on the hard shoulder of the busy M2 – forcing her partner to tie the umbilical cord with his shoelace.

Izzy Farrell, from Whitstable, had a 22-hour labour with her first daughter, Calliope, two, with several interventions required.

So when she began to get cramps on the due date of her second daughter, she expected the birth to be hours, or even days, away.

But when her pains got stronger she and partner Christian Guthrie, 34, jumped into their car and sped off on the M2.

Her partner was forced to pull over on the hard shoulder and only just managed to scramble out of the car fast enough to grab newborn Aura as she was born in the passenger seat of their Hyundai Ioniq.

The call handler told Mr Guthrie to tie off the umbilical cord with his shoelace when he spotted it had split.

Just 13 hours after her first contraction, Miss Farrell, Aura and Mr Guthrie were on their way back down the motorway heading home.

Miss Farrell, 34, said: “It gushed everywhere - like something out of a film.

“There was nowhere to stop except the hard shoulder, and I could already see the head crowning, so we had no choice.

“I gave birth while an American pop punk band played on the car radio - but I could barely hear it over my screams as I pushed.

“It wasn't how we planned for it to go, but it's a great story and we got a happy, smiley and healthy baby at the end.”

Mr Guthrie added that because his partner’s first labour took so long, he never thought they would not make it to the hospital in time.

“I was driving as fast as the law allowed - but when Izzy said the baby was coming, I had to pull over,” he said.

“I called 999 but it happened so quickly that I had to drop my phone halfway through the call to pull out the baby!

“Everything ended up fine in the end - except the car resembled a crime scene afterwards!”

Miss Farrell said she first felt a cramp on her due date – April 5 – at around 3am, and initially put it down to Braxton Hicks.

But an hour later it got stronger and more painful – so they headed to Medway Maritime Hospital.

Her partner said: “Izzy said 'the baby is coming now' so I pulled over - I called 999 and I was frantically trying to explain to the operator what was happening.

“I opened the car door and could already see it crowning - we could tell that baby was coming no matter what.

“Neither of us do medical jobs and had never done anything like this before!

“The umbilical cord had split in the chaos of bundling her up and pulling her out, and the operator said there was a risk of blood loss if that happens.

“So I had to take off my shoe and use the shoelace to tie it off.

“Then, it was freezing cold at 6am in April, stood on the hard shoulder of the motorway, so I had to focus on wrapping up Aura in coats and blankets until the ambulance came.”

Aura was born at 6.41am on April 5 2024, weighing 7lbs 5oz, after just five minutes of pushing, and an ambulance arrived by 7am.

The mum-of-two said: “I found it funny how I had opted for a hospital birth instead of a home birth because I thought it would be safer.

“It would actually have been safer for me to have stayed home and had her there!

“It was quite scary being taken on a stretcher as lorries fly by at 70 miles per hour.

“But it's a great story now - one day, Aura will be bored of hearing about it as we talk about it all the time.”

Mr Guthrie added: “But I wouldn't recommend giving birth at the side of the road!”