Woman gives birth on the A12 near Utrecht during rush hour

Police in Utrecht confirmed that a woman gave birth in traffic during the Thursday afternoon rush hour period. Both the mother and the child were doing well, despite the circumstances, said infrastructure agency Rijkswaterstaat. It is at least the third time in three months that a child has been born on a Dutch highway.

It happened at about 5:30 p.m. on the A12 highway near Harmelen, which is just west of Utrecht. "The highway was closed for a while, but has since reopened. The delivery went well and quickly," police said.

At one point, several of the westbound lanes were closed as police and paramedics tended to the woman. There was a significant amount of traffic for a while, but that had mainly cleared up by 7 p.m., Rijkswaterstaat said.

The mother named the child, Amalia, police in Utrecht told newswire ANP.

Last month, a woman gave birth while in a traffic jam on the A2 near Maasbracht. In April, a woman also gave birth on the A13 near Delft as she and her partner raced towards the hospital with the midwife trailing behind them.

The parents and children in each case were brought to a hospital in good condition. In the A13 birth, the parents, Shannen and Luca, named their child Bente.

“Her water had already broken when the midwife arrived at our house. In the car, we found out she was already fully dilated. Thirty seconds before Shannen gave birth, we stopped the car on the hard shoulder. After that, it all went very quickly. I cut the umbilical cord on the highway,” Luca said days later.