An eventer who went into labour while attending a show has welcomed a healthy baby son, having made it to the hospital in the nick of time.
Cheshire-based Bonnie Fishburn had been at a show four miles from home with her husband Tom Hollins and miniature Shetland pony Mr Pegs on 20 September – a week before Bonnie’s due date.
“I woke up after midnight and it felt like I was having contractions 20 minutes apart. I had been having Braxton Hicks [false labour pains] earlier in the week so I put it down to the same thing and thought it was a false alarm,” Bonnie told H&H.
“At 6am I got up and bathed Mr Pegs for the show, didn’t tell Tom or my mum Lynn what had happened and we carried on to the show.”
Bonnie’s contractions began after midnight and believing it was a false alarm, she got up at 6am and bathed Mr Pegs before going to the show
(Image credit: creditUnknown)
Bonnie said as the morning progressed, the intervals between contractions became shorter.
“They went down to 15 minutes, and then to five,” she said. “People started to notice I wasn’t my chatty self and eventually my mum said, ‘you’re in labour aren’t you?’
“Mr Pegs won his first class with Tom, but I thought we’d best get to hospital so we didn’t stay for the second.”
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On arriving home, Bonnie turned out three horses before Tom drove her to the hospital around 40 minutes away.
“By this point the contractions were one minute apart so it got a bit scary,” she said. “I was in the room less than half an hour by which point Tom had fallen asleep and was snoring his head off.”
Bonnie and Tom welcomed baby Edward, who will be known as Teddy, at 2.28pm weighing 7.13lbs.
“It was all quite surreal but I wouldn’t have had it any other way. We left hospital later that evening and got a Chinese on the way home,” said Bonnie.
“I shared my experience online and people have seemed to love it. I can’t believe the reaction it’s had – the mums out there have found it inspirational.”
Bonnie said she isn’t going to rush back into the saddle, but Teddy did attend his first horse show with his three-year-old sister Harriet and her pony Mrs Marnie yesterday (27 September).
Teddy has attended his first show
(Image credit: creditUnknown)
“It’s all gone very well, but it could have been a different story – I could have had him in the horsebox!” she said.
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Since joining H&H in 2018, Becky has covered a broad range of equestrian news including welfare matters, veterinary studies, FEI Tribunal hearings and road safety campaigns. She has also interviewed top riders including Scott Brash, John Whitaker and Ian Stark, to name just a few. Becky’s reporting has taken her to Canada for Spruce Meadows and France for Pau five-star, as well as the Royal Highland and Blair Castle International Horse Trials closer to home. She was also a key part of the remote reporting team for the Tokyo Olympics and the Europeans.
