LITTLE Kairen Vaughan stopped the traffic when his mum Danielle went into labour with him on a Newport street last week.

Ms Vaughan appeared about to give birth to her fourth child after the car in which she was being taken to the Royal Gwent Hospital had to stop on Vaughan Williams Drive, Alway, as her labour pains intensified.

Family, friends and neighbours rallied around with towels and blankets, helping care for her for 45 minutes, before she was placed inside an ambulance which had blocked the road, preventing a bus from passing.

A photograph in the Argus last Saturday captured the drama, showing Ms Vaughan being cared for on the pavement with son Cameron holding her hand.

And then... nothing.

Ms Vaughan's waters broke in the hospital lift and she fully expected to have her baby within minutes.

But by the evening she was back home in Alway, and it was not until early on Sunday afternoon that son Kairen was born, weighing 8lbs 1oz.

The drama began shortly after Ms Vaughan walked to Alway Primary School to pick up her three children, Cameron, aged 10, nine-year-old Kayden, and seven-year-old Chloe.

She said: "I had pains when I left the house but not strong ones and I didn't think I was in labour.

"I was waiting on the bench outside school, and I started having stronger pains. I phoned the midwife and she told me to phone the birthing centre (at the Royal Gwent Hospital). "They told me to go down there.

"My friend Kelly (Shackson) brought me home to get my ante-natal book, and to get my cousin Rachel Vaughan, who is my birth partner."

After the car pulled onto Vaughan Williams Drive though, the pains got more intense and they were forced to stop.

Ms Vaughan remembers little of what followed.

Her mum, Debbie, a cleaner at the school, said that when she arrived at the scene after being alerted by a phone call, the street was full of people and they had brought towels and blankets, fully anticipating that the baby would be born right there.

"There were a lot of people who helped and looked after her, they were fantastic," Debbie added.

"A Rapid Response Vehicle came and we were told she was crowning (the baby's head beginning to appear).

"Then the ambulance came and the bus couldn't get past, while she was put inside."

But later, with everything calming down, Ms Vaughan went home from the hospital.

"The midwife said the gas and air put him to sleep, because I'd taken too much," Ms Vaughan said.

"And they said it was probably just my back waters that had broken on Friday.

"I was on a cleaning mission on Sunday at home, and about 12 (noon) I had a really sharp pain. It was a slow labour for three days, but then he came really quickly."