Police deliver baby outside burger chain

Lianne and Gavin Smith with their daughters, 2-year-old Maia and new arrival Ariana. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Lianne Smith is not a fast-food fan, but the sight of a Burger King store will always make her smile.

Not because she has a soft spot for a whopper, large fries and a Coke, but because two police officers helped to deliver her second child in one of the burger chain's carparks.

Two weeks from full term, Mrs Smith was on her way to Waikato Hospital's delivery room last Thursday with husband Gavin when she felt a contraction which she knew "meant business".

"I said, 'Baby is coming', and he was like, 'Yeah, yeah', but I was like, 'No, the baby is coming, right now'."

The couple stopped at a Burger King carpark on Greenwood St in Hamilton and Gavin banged on the store window to ask for help from two police officers having a late-night meal.

"It was pouring with rain, one police officer was shining his torch and the other was sort of sitting behind me holding my hand and telling to me to stay calm and to breathe.

"My husband was attending to things in the nether regions ... Three more contractions and the baby pops out."

The Te Kuiti couple's daughter Ariana Lee Smith, weighing 3.4kg, was born shortly before midnight, less than an hour after her 33-year-old mother went into labour.

"We were intensely delighted as you could imagine," Mrs Smith said.

"The policemen were pretty happy too. They were saying, 'Oh you must be so proud'."

Mrs Smith was taken to hospital by ambulance a few minutes later and said she never got a chance to thank the officers who helped her and her husband.

One drove the couple's car to the hospital and the other escorted them there while Mr Smith sat in the ambulance.

Said Mrs Smith: "These guys were great and we really would like to say 'thank you' to them."