It's all hands to the petrol pump for baby Z's arrival

Miranda Scott-Simmonds with baby "Z', daughter Dillon and husband Jacob Scott-Simmonds in Tauranga Hospital.

The parents of a baby girl born on a petrol station forecourt have nicknamed her "Z" until they decide on her name.

The 8lb 7oz (3.82kg) baby was born at a Z service station on Hewletts Rd, Mt Maunganui, about 8am yesterday after 35-year-old mum Miranda Scott-Simmonds' labour progressed quicker than expected.

Mother and daughter are now recovering well in Tauranga Hospital after the ordeal, with little Z arriving three days early - and within just one hour and 15 minutes.

"She was due on February 8, but her sister, Dillon, arrived three days early as well," Mrs Scott-Simmonds said.

"My waters broke around 6am ... We thought we had heaps of time to get organised and had been expecting a longer labour and birth because Dillon's had taken 25 hours."

Husband Jacob Scott-Simmonds, 34, described it as a "pretty manic" day.

After Miranda experienced her first couple of contractions, he threw some bags together to take her to the hospital. "By the time we were backing out of the garage she was saying she wanted to push and I was telling her not to," Jacob said. "You really couldn't print what her response was to that bit of advice. It wasn't friendly."

He "pretty much just had to reverse out into the [rush hour] traffic", getting abuse from frustrated drivers, he said.

He called midwife Gillian and put her on speakerphone and she told them to pull over while she called for an ambulance, which met them at the service station a few minutes later.

"It felt like an age," Jacob said.

"We rolled her out of the car on to the stretcher and five minutes later in the ambulance the baby arrived."