Midwife Schumacher does the job

HAPPY FAMILY: Rachael Tau with her second son William, partner Paul Marsh and William's big brother Tyreze, a little more relaxed after the drama of yesterday morning.

Rachael Tau and Paul Marsh saw a very different side to their midwife, Naomi Waldron, yesterday morning.

It was her job to get Rachael from Mangonui to Kaitaia Hospital before baby William arrived, and she made it, thanks to a police escort for the last couple of kilometres and some very impressive driving.

"I didn't think she'd drive like Michael Schumacher," an admiring Paul Marsh said yesterday afternoon, after William had arrived safe and sound.

"It's been an eventful day," he added.

It all began at around 5am, when Rachael's waters broke. By 7 it was all on, Paul said, with plenty of sweating, yelling and a little swearing. The midwife was called from Kaitaia, but the 30 minutes it took her to get to Mangonui was more then enough for the couple's neighbours to offer their assistance.

"They were all keen to help, grabbing sheets and towels," Paul said, but Rachael was adamant that she would deliver the baby in hospital.

"I told them I could hold on," she said, and she did, although William was crowning before the car screeched to a halt outside the maternity ward.

They were joined by a police car as they sped through Awanui but ignored the lights and sirens until they reached the bottom of the Awanui Straight, some five kilometres closer to the hospital, where a second police arrived from Kaitaia and persuaded them to stop. Naomi gave them a quick sit rep, the officers leaping back into their cars to provide an escort. William arrived some 10 or 15 minutes later - and Paul missed it.

He had taken their two and a half-year-old firstborn outside to cool off in the fresh air for a few minutes, returning to be greeted with the news that he now had two sons.

William weighed in at seven pounds 15 ounces, a little smaller than Tyreze, and in rude good health.

Meanwhile Senior Sergeant Chris McLellan said he was on way to the Kaitaia police station when he spotted the speeding four-wheel-drive vehicle at Awanui. The driver ignored his flashing lights and continued at speed along the Awanui Straight, so he "engaged in a pursuit."

"The speeds were getting up there [around 130km/h], but the vehicle was staying in the lane and the driver was indicating before passing other traffic," he said.

The driver finally stopped near Pak'nSave, but once he heard that a pregnant woman was onboard the pursuit became an escort.

"One look at the pregnant woman's face and I knew she wasn't ready to negotiate anything. The only place she wanted to be was hospital."