Lucas Tindall’s dramatic birth story as Zara was unable to make it to hospital

Zara and Mike Tindall are the proud parents of three children, however their youngest Lucas had possibly the most dramatic birth story as he was born on the bathroom floor at their home.

Lucas is celebrating his third birthday today, March 21, however just a few days after he arrived in 2021 his dad Mike explained what happened when Zara went into labour.

Speaking on his podcast The Good, The Bad & The Ugly, Mike explained that “fortunately” his wife’s friend Dolly Maude was with them and “and recognised that we wouldn’t have got to hospital in time”.

He said: “So, it was run into the gym, get a mat, get into the bathroom, get a mat on the floor, towels down, ‘brace-brace-brace’.

“Fortunately, the midwife, who was going to meet us at the hospital wasn’t that far away, so she drove up, got there just as we’d assumed the pos-ish [as he called the position]. And then the second midwife arrived just after the head had arrived.”

The former England rugby player also recounted his story during his time in the Australian jungle on I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here!

According to Sky News, Mike told his campmates: “As we got our stuff to go to hospital, she got out of the bath, she could barely stand, she was shaking.

“The midwife was like, ‘She’s not making the hospital.’ She was like, ‘You don’t want to be delivering in the car.’ [I went] into the gym [and got] two gym mats [to put] down in the bathroom.”

Zara’s labour pains with her son were intense, as Mike added: “She almost choked me to death. You can’t say anything, can you? ‘Can you let go, you’re really hurting me?'”

Lucas is a little brother to Mia, who was born on January 17 2014, and Lena, who arrived on June 18 2018, with the family living together at Gatcombe Park in Gloucestershire.

A home birth may seem unusual for the Royal Family, but actually they were the norm until 1977, when Zara’s mother Princess Anne opted to her son Peter Phillips in hospital.

Peter and Zara were born in the Lindo Wing of St Mary’s Hospital in London, where both Princess Diana and Princess Kate would later welcome their children.

Kate and Prince William also famously posed with their newborns on the hospital steps, just as Diana and Prince Charles did before them.

Queen Elizabeth gave birth to her three sons Charles, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward, at Buckingham Palace, while Anne was born at Clarence House as the Palace was undergoing renovations.