Oban Lifeboat launches for not-the-fifth onboard birth

The Oban lifeboat launched at 4.00am this morning (Sunday 7th February)  to cross to Criagnure on the Isle of Mull to bring a pregnant lady to hospital in Oban. This sort of shout is called a ‘pregevac’ – not the most elegant of terms perhaps, but easy to decode.

Two ambulancemen went over with the crew and the midwife and the lady’s husband were also aboard with her on the way back.

Thoughts that the fifth birth aboard Oban Lifeboats might be about to occur were soon dispelled when the mother-to-be was able to walk off the lifeboat in to the waiting ambulance at Oban at 0528 hours.

We suspect that the crew are eager to see if their count of male babies born aboard the Mora Edith Macdonald might increase. Of the four onboard births to date, three are girls and the most recent is a boy. Maybe the tide is turning?

Disappointed or not, the lifeboat was still refuelled and ready for service again by 06.00 hours.