Baby “born to ride” after Peterborough mum gave birth - at a motorbike track

A thrilled new Peterborough mum says her baby is “born to ride” after she gave birth to him - at a bike race track.

Shannon Watson, 17, was left ‘shocked’ when her son, Jackson, came roaring into the world while she was at the motocross event.

She had no idea the birth was imminent when she drove to Doncaster Moto Parc, South Yorkshire to support her mum's junior team.

But the next morning, she felt some contractions before little Jackson arrived in the race track’s offices - after she had spent five hours in labour.

Shannon later joked that the tot - who has been given a lifetime free membership to the circuit - would now take after his family and become a bike racer.

She said: “He would have probably been riding anyway because my great grandad, grandad, dad, uncle and nephew ride – and my mum is the secretary of a club.

“But everyone has been saying: 'He is born to ride and born to race'.

Shannon added about the birth: “I was kind of shocked. I didn’t know that I was in labour until we had seen the medic and my waters had broken.

“And then because it was at a race track and I was not in a hospital, I was a bit overwhelmed. There were so many people around.

“One of the race track medics and an ambulance woman actually delivered the baby while someone had a towel under their top to warm it up for baby Jackson.”

Shannon was 40 weeks pregnant when she went into labour.

She had just taken up her position the lap scoring hut of Doncaster Moto Parc when she began to feel a “really bad” pain in her stomach.

Medics confirmed she was in labour just after midday and she gave birth at 1.20pm.

Shannon, who has been with boyfriend Jake Deane, 16, two and half years, added: “When it first started, I didn’t know they were contractions. It was not until later when they were really bad. I was sat in the lap scoring hut.

“The racing had not fully started. But I actually was unable to take down the results because of how bad I was feeling. I couldn’t focus.”

Shannon had not told her mum, Nicola Bedford, 37, that she was pregnant when she agreed to go to the race meet last weekend.

And she had felt “nothing” as she headed on the 90-mile journey North to the track where she was due to help out by taking down lap times.

But on Sunday morning April 7, at around 8.30am, she started feeling a strange painful sensation in her stomach.

And she later decided to see the medics at the race track who just after midday confirmed that she was in fact in labour.

Shannon said: “I message my mum saying that my stomach was hurting and roughly an hour and a half later, I ended up going to the medics.

“And then 20 minutes from there, it came out that I was in labour.

“The staff called the ambulance as soon as we had figured it out. But because of the racing, they had paramedics there.”

Two ambulance teams rushed to the circuit where they helped Shannon give birth to Jackson, who weighed 7lb 4oz, inside the race track’s offices at 1.20pm.

The pair were then taken to a hospital where they could recover.

New grandmum Nicola said she was stunned to learn that her daughter was pregnant - adding that there had been “no signs” that she was about to give birth.

She said: “We’re all still a bit in shock. She knew about her pregnancy but she was scared and didn't tell anyone – she didn't realise she was due to drop.

"And you couldn't tell she was pregnant. So as you can imagine being her mum, I was very shocked to find out she was in labour let alone pregnant!”

Shannon said her friends and family had been gently teasing her about her son’s name after he unexpectedly arrived in the Northern city miles from her home.

She said: “There have been loads of jokes - the main one has been the name should be ‘Donny’ instead of ‘Jackson’ because he was born in Doncaster.”

A spokesman for Doncaster Moto Parc congratulated the pair following the unexpected arrival on race day.

They said: "We had a little hold up in today’s racing programme while a baby was delivered in our office!

"Mum and baby are doing well. Congratulations from all at Doncaster Moto Parc. How amazing."