It was water, water everywhere when twins Harvey and Hazel Qu came into this world on the morning of July 4.

It was during a storm that Madam Tan Swee Gek's waterbag burst.

Dad Qu Wang Jze, 35, had just dropped their elder son, Howard, who is 18 months old, at the childcare centre in Bukit Panjang before going to work when he got a call from his wife, also 35.

"She sounded rather weak. I took 10 minutes to rush back and to take her to Thomson Medical Centre," said the civil servant.

There was the morning rush hour traffic at 8.30 am, but the babies could not wait.

At Pending Road, Madam Tan told her husband she had to deliver.

"That was when I turned into the nearest carpark near Block 254, Bangkit Road. It was an open-air one. I alighted and when I went to the back seat where my wife was, I could see a baby's head," he said.

Two women passing by heard his shouts for help and rushed over. One of them was bank officer Tay Hui Ting, 30.

She helped to call for an ambulance while the other woman, a foreign maid, helped the couple.

"When I went over to the car, the first baby was already out, but he still had his umbilical cord attached.

"I got worried when I heard there was another child, so I kept calling the call centre to make sure the ambulance has got the right location," Miss Tay told The New Paper.

Mr Qu said there was a bloody mess in the car, but when he heard the faint cries of his son, he was assured.

"That was when the rain became very unforgiving. It pelted really hard, but we were fine. The women used their umbrellas to shield us from the weather and one used my wife's packed clothing to wrap my son," he said.

It was then that Mr Qu remembered they were having twins.

"And I asked my wife to push so the girl could be born too. She came four minutes after her brother, but she was in a breech position.

"I could see her legs and body instead of her head."

A baby is in the breech position when he or she is not in a head-down position. This would result in the baby's head being the last part to emerge from the mother, making it more difficult to ease the child through the birth canal.

Read the full story here.

This article was first published in The New Paper.