A mother who had a terrifying car crash at 38 weeks pregnant says expectant parents should wear adaptable seatbelts—because she was “lucky.”
Louise Woodhead, 29, was driving with her partner, Ben Rafferty, 32, and a friend in June this year when a car trying to overtake a tractor crashed into her. The car hit the driver’s side, pushing her into the hedge.
The impact of the crash caused the airbags to go off, and Ms. Woodhead felt “scared to death about the baby.”
Ms. Woodhead was taken in an ambulance to hospital, where they ran an ultrasound and CT scan to check the baby was fine. She suffered extensive bruising across her stomach and thighs but welcomed her baby boy, Sullivan, now 3 months old, on July 4, weighing 7 pounds 4 ounces.
The mom-of-two feels “lucky” that she and her baby are okay.
But Ms. Woodhead, a nursery nurse, from Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England, is warning other expectant mothers to be more cautious when driving and to wear an adaptable seat belt to better protect their abdomen.
Ms. Woodhead said: “A tractor was doing the hedgerow on the other side of the road. In a split second, a car came round a blind bend—it didn’t have time to stop and came on my side of the road to avoid the tractor.
“It pushed me off the road and hit my side of the car. The impact hit me and all the airbags came out. I was scared to death about the baby. My stomach was black and looked really bad. I’m lucky I’m here, and I have a baby.”
Ms. Woodhead said it was “a massive scare” when the car hit her head-on while she was on the way to breakfast with her partner. “My door was smashed in,” she said. “The driver of the car that crashed into me had to pull me out and carry me out. It’s not what you want at 38 weeks pregnant.”
Ms. Woodhead was blue-lighted to Northern General Hospital before they were able to check the baby’s heartbeat, and she was reassured her unborn baby was safe and fine. After a further internal examination, Chesterfield Royal Hospital confirmed her placenta was intact.
“They checked the heartbeat,” she said. “Everything was still secure.”
Ms. Woodhead was left with severe bruising, which still hadn’t gone down when she went to give birth. She had an emergency cesarean section after a long labor and welcomed Sullivan at 11:06 a.m. on July 4, 2023, at Chesterfield Royal Hospital.
“I didn’t know how, but he was absolutely fine. Not a mark on him,” she said. “He’s brilliant and very chunky.”
She now advises others to wear an adaptable seat belt, which she believes could save a baby’s life or ease bruising if the worst happens.
“It eases the tension across the stomach,” Ms. Woodhead said. “It would stop bruising and stop the damage to a baby. I was lucky—he was quite robust—but it could have been different.
“Somebody else might not be that lucky.”
The driver was given additional training, and no criminal charges were brought against them.
