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Swedish police deliver baby in back seat of car

Two Swedish police officers assisted in a very special roadside delivery over the weekend when they helped a mum give birth to a baby girl in the middle of the night.

Published: 16 November 2015 11:06 CET

Swedish police deliver baby in back seat of car

This is not the baby in the story. Photo: Jurek Holzer/SvD/SCANPIX

Police officer Petter Kesselmark described the unusual incident which saw him and his colleague Stina Strömberg flagged down by a nervous soon-to-be dad at a roundabout in Norrköping, eastern Sweden, in the early hours of Sunday.

“There was a car parked on the roadside and a man was waving frantically at us. The back door was open and I said to my colleague: do you think there's a birth about to happen?” he told regional newspaper Corren.

But the pair quickly sprang into action when they realized that was in fact the case.

“There were only minutes left so my colleague took care of the woman and we came up with a blanket, while I talked to the emergency services and a midwife on the phone and could pass on that everything was cool and all we had to do was receive the child,” said Kesselmark.

The healthy baby girl was born inside the car at 12.07am. An ambulance which arrived at the scene minutes later took the mother and the newborn to hospital for a check-over.

A while later they got a visit from their unexpected helpers.

“They were so happy and we felt honoured to have been part of this and to have shared it with them. We walked around with big smiles on our faces later, said Kesselmark.

Readers reveal: These are the best bilingual baby names in Spain

The Local's readers reveal their favourite bilingual baby names. Photo: RuthBlack/Depositphotos

Parents who decide to bring up their child bilingually in English and Spanish generally want to choose a name that works equally well in both English and Spanish.

Some people like to choose names that are commonly used in both languages and are not only pronounced the same but have the exact same spelling, names such as Maria, Lucia, Isabel and Olivia for girls and Martin, Oscar, and Bruno for boys.

Then there are the names that are recognisable but either pronounced slightly differently or have a different spelling, such as Sofia/Sophia, Cristina/Christina, Ana/Anna or Paola/Paula for girls.

And for boys, Simon, Gabriel, David or Adrian are all names that are spelled the same but pronounced with a slightly different emphasis. Then there are names such as Hugo, which is spelled the same but sounds very different in both languages: Hewgo in English and Oogoh in Castellano.

Likewise, Isla is having a resurgence in the UK with its silent 's' but will always be pronounced as 'Izla' – the Castellano word for island – when in Spain.

Typical Spanish names may be easy to pronounce for English-speakers despite not being traditional anglo names.

Names such as Pablo, Diego and Rafael are common enough that they won’t pose a problem, but although the name Jesus is pretty normal in Spain, it will certainly raise a few eyebrows among English speakers.

Photo: AFP

Some names though prove very challenging to Spanish speakers.

Spanish tongues struggle with Craig and Graham and don’t even think about selecting Irish names such as Deirdre or Siobhan.

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Kristin Tietz, an American who married a Spaniard, explained their process: “Our approach was to try out names orally (since hubby's a Spaniard) to try to choose names pronounced the same internationally.

“It worked like a charm until they enrolled in school (British), leading to a startling array of odd versions of the name Borja, which Americans and other nationalities seem to find easy to say. Sadly, many of his teachers could not, with “Borgo” one of our faves.”

For Mary Reid, an English teacher in Madrid and her Spanish partner Raul, it was important to have names that could be pronounced easily in both languages.

“We settled on Dani and Oscar for our two boys,” explains Mary, originally from Nottingham.

“I wanted the English grandparents to be able to say their grandsons’ names correctly,” she said.

“The spelling was also important too. Although in the UK I’m constantly having to say that it’s Dani with an “I” not “y”. And that’s interesting seeing as British names have a big variety of spellings these days.”

Spelling was also top consideration for Tania Garcia Miñan, an English teacher who lives in Galicia with her Spanish husband.

“There are loads of Galician names that we automatically scrapped due to having an x in. Names with a J too were ruled out. I personally didn't want an equivalent, I wanted it to be as easy to pronounce and spell as possible in both languages.”

She chose Lucas for her son.

It was something her parents had also considered when choosing her and her sister’s name as they had moved from their native Galicia to London in the 1980s and brought up their two girls, Deborah and Tania.

“My name is pronounced the same in Spanish and English but I used to get annoyed in England when they spelt Tania with a ‘y’,” she said.

She also said it’s worth checking if that name has a certain stigma in one language.

“Lucas is the name they give Daffy Duck in Spain and the catch phrase is 'hasta luego, Lucas', so we hear that a lot.”

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For Londoner Graham Keeley, who now lives near Barcelona with his French partner and their three boys, it was even more of a challenge.

“Most importantly was we wanted names that worked in English and French and that weren’t too weird in Spanish or Catalan,” he explains.

They picked Thomas for the firstborn and Max and Jack for their twin boys, born 18 months later.

“We nailed it with Max, which is pronounced and spelled the same in whatever language we come across,” he admitted. “But the other two are both easy in all four languages although pronounced slightly differently.”

“People pronounce it Tomas (Spanish), Toma (French), or Thomas (English) but we don’t really mind that, and Jack is either Jacques in French or Jack to everyone else,” he said.

“The most important thing was not to have a name that stood out as either being 'too French' or 'too English' or was just plain unpronounceable in Spanish.

“Having a name like Graham – which no one can pronounce in Spanish – made us acutely aware of the importance of an easy name that wouldn’t single you out,” he said.

When it comes to girls' names, Sofia, Isabel, Lucia and Olivia are among the most popular suggestions but Spanish names such as Alma, Alba and Lola are gaining ground.

“We named my daughter Alba. In Gaelic it means Scotland (I’m Scottish) and works in English and Spanish with the same pronunciation too,” said Eilidh Shankland on The Local Spain's Facebook page.

“Biblical names with the same spelling work perfectly (and the same in Catalan too, don't forget some people need to factor that in too!). Such as David or Daniel,” added Lyn Shepherd.

“My mom was Spanish, dad Dutch and I’m South African living in Spain,” recounts Teresa Leonie Krijger Hoffmann. “My name Teresa works well and so did my brother’s name, Anthony. My sister’s, not so much – Maria de las Mercedes!”

One reader suggested trying it out for a while before registering it.

“I wanted my eldest to have my grandfather's name or a variation of it as his middle name – Donald (not a popular option I know!!),” said Natalie Abbott Tobias. “So to begin with we had just Don. The confusion it caused!! Don Lorenzo Don Tobias? People looked at us like we were simple! Luckily we hadn't registered it at that point.”

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