WHEN mum-of-two Jade Paice realised her baby was coming she was on the A120.

Her waters had broken and she wanted to push.

"I didn't want to give birth in the car," the 19-year-old said.

"It was very stressful and very scary."

After Harwich Maternity Unit closed to new births last month, Jade had been told she would have to travel to Colchester to give birth.

But she didn't quite make the 45 minute drive that day and little Leah-Marie Thomson was born in the back of a Ford Puma at 7am on April 3 weighing 6lb 4oz - mum and baby were just meters from the hospital doors.

A spokesman for Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust said: “When we announced the temporary closure of the Harwich maternity unit last month for women wishing to give birth there, we apologised in advance to the relatively small number of women and families who would be affected. We repeat that apology today."