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30th Aug 2022

Emergency services rush to Notting Hill Carnival as woman gives birth

Ellen Fitzpatrick

Hope she’s doing well.

Emergency services were called to this year’s Notting Hill Carnival over the weekend when a woman gave birth.

People and paramedics rushed to the scene in West London on Sunday at 6.45pm as the woman found herself in labour, with videos circling online of the police assisting her.

In the background, according to MyLondon, the crowd can be heard chanting: “She’s had a baby.”

A London Ambulance spokesperson said: “We were called at 6.45pm on Sunday August 28 to reports of a person in labour within the footprint of Notting Hill Carnival.

“We treated an adult and baby at the scene and took them to hospital as a priority.”

It was unknown if the woman was attending the carnival or not.

One person who was at the festival tweeted: “I hope the woman who gave birth at Notting Hill Carnival is safe and well and her baby is doing well. That could have been a stress induced premature Labour and maybe she didn’t expect to.”

There were said to be over a million people at this year’s Notting Hill Carnival, which is held annually on the August bank holiday.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the last two years were cancelled and this is the first to go ahead since 2019.

The carnival is held between Ladbroke Grove and Westbourne Park and expands into the areas of Kensington and Notting Hill.

The carnival is a celebration of music, dancing food and drink and is rooted in Caribbean culture with influences from the Windrush generation who largely settled in the Notting Hill area.

Rhaune Laslett set up the carnival to celebrate diversity and 55 years on it is now the second biggest carnival in the world, behind Rio’s in Brazil.