A TAXI driver who started a journey to hospital with three passengers finished it with four after a baby was born on the back seat.

Mark Kermode from York Cars collected 26-year-old Stephanie Lynch, who was in labour, from her home in Dringhouses on March 3.

But a few minutes into the journey, with her mum and partner also in the car, Stephanie realised they were not going to make it. Mark pulled into the car park of the Marriott Hotel on Tadcaster Road.

Stephanie said: “My water broke and the contractions were like nothing at all. I didn’t want to go to hospital yet so waited a bit.

“We had only been in the taxi for three or four minutes but all of a sudden the contractions went to unbearable. I realised I wasn’t going to make it to the hospital. I was a bit panicked but I remember the driver being really calm. He was lovely, I think he was just in pure shock.

“My mum was there and she doesn’t panic - she just said everything’s going to be alright. It all happened so quickly.”

Mark pulled into the hotel car park and got out of the taxi while Stephanie’s partner, Stephen, called paramedics for help.

Her mum Claire delivered the baby girl on the back seat of the car.

And the drama did not end there - when the baby arrived she was blue and had the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck.

Stephanie said: “I was panicking.

“The cord was wrapped twice around her neck but my mum unwrapped it and rubbed her back and soon she was pink again.

“My mum’s just good in situations like that, I’m glad she was there. I don’t really remember much afterwards.

“Mum’s very proud to have delivered the baby, it’s the first grandchild she has delivered.”

The 6lb 4oz baby, named Evie, was born at 11.27am and two ambulances arrived shortly afterwards to take the newborn and her mum to York Hospital for a check-up.

Stephanie, who is also mum to seven-year-old Charlie, five-year-old Alfie and 11-month-old Amelia, joked that she was known on the maternity ward as the mum who gave birth in the back of a cab.

She went back to York Cars yesterday to introduce taxi driver Mark to baby Evie and thank him for his help.

Stephanie said: “I did ring the company to say sorry.

“The driver said he went to get the car valeted afterwards and then went straight back to work.

“It was so nice to be able to say thank you in person and I’m just so pleased that everything was alright.”

York Cars revealed it is not the first time a baby has been born in the back of one of its taxis.

Malgorzata Gaska’s baby daughter was delivered by her partner Peter on the back seat of another of the company’s cars in October 2016.