Noble Park resident Jenny Andersson with baby Hayden and Karen Zini with Kaleb, after their miraculous double birth. 22930 Picture: Stewart Chambers
By Kelly Yates
AN ENDEAVOUR Hills woman says she can’t wait to tell her newborn son the rocky road she took to bring him into the world.
Karen Zini, 39, went into labour at 11.30am on Sunday 14 September and was unable to contact her husband to drive her to hospital.
She called her close friend Jenny Andersson, 22, from Noble Park, who was also pregnant.
But by the time she arrived at the Endeavour Hills’ home, Ms Andersson had also gone into labour.
With both women breathing through the contractions, they jumped into the car and set off for the Monash Medical Centre in Clayton.
To add to the dramatic situation, the car overheated and the women were stranded at one of Melbourne’s busiest intersections, the corner of Springvale Road and Wellington Road.
“We were just laughing at each other in disbelief,” she said. “If one of us had started stressing it would have set the other one off, so all we could do was sit there and make a joke out of it.”
Mrs Zini said they didn’t call an ambulance because they believed there were more people out there who needed emergency assistance.
The women made contact with their partners to tell them they were both in labour and needed a lift to hospital.
Mrs Zini’s husband, Ric, and Ms Andersson’s fiance, Andrew MacRea, found the women two and a half hours after they set off for hospital.
“Once we arrived at the hospital, the maternity staff just laughed, wondering which one was giving birth,” Mrs Zini laughed.
Mrs Zini delivered Kaleb Eric Zini at 2.40am on Monday 15 September, weighing 6 pound 15 ounces while Ms Andersson had Hayden Sandy MacRae at 8.03pm.
“We didn’t have a doom and gloom birth, it was a happy ending, with a few laughs along the way,” Mrs Zini said.
