A Co Monaghan mother and her new baby girl - who was born in a police station in Co Armagh at the weekend - are said to be "progressing well" in hospital this morning.
The baby, whose mother is from the Bree area of Castleblayney, Co Monaghan, was born shortly after midnight on Saturday in Crossmaglen PSNI station. Her husband is said to be from Newry.
Const Paul Magennis, who helped to deliver the baby, explained yesterday that the couple were on their way to hospital in Newry, about 15 miles away, on Friday night when they realised the baby "was coming sooner than they were expecting".
"The father of the baby rang on the station door bell and explained the situation, so we brought them in and made the mother as comfortable as possible. We got a mattress and water and called an ambulance but the situation became more imminent, shall we say," said Const Magennis.
The police were in constant contact with the ambulance crew en route from Newry, he continued. "Then the first ambulance arrived five minutes before the birth. And then there was a baby girl in the station, just like that."
A second ambulance arrived shortly after, he said, and the family were taken to Daisyhill Hospital in Newry.
A spokeswoman for the maternity unit at the hospital said yesterday that both mother and baby were "tired but doing fine and progressing well".
