A NORTHUMBERLAND man has delivered his own daughter in the back of an ambulance.

Michael Potts, of Belford, had the honour of delivering Hollie in a North East Ambulance Service vehicle after partner Jayne Richardson’s waters burst minutes into their journey to hospital.

Hollie is the second baby to be born in an ambulance in Northumberland in recent weeks following the birth of Marty McCulloch in a hospital car park in Alnwick.

Her dad last night told how delivering her had been the proudest moment of his life.

Michael and Jayne, 34 and 25 respectively, who live at Bell Road, had arranged to have their new arrival at Borders General Hospital at Melrose and she was due to give birth on November 12.

With an appointment made for the pregnancy to be induced, the couple were waiting for the big day to arrive. But baby Hollie had other ideas.

Very early on the morning of Friday, November 16, Jayne, who works as a nursery nurse at Dunbar, began to notice pains and eventually woke Michael, a driver for Simpsons Malt at Berwick.

With an ambulance arriving at 6.30am and a neighbour looking after six-year-old daughter Jessica, the parents thought they had plenty of time.

At around 6.45am, Jayne and Michael got into the ambulance and it raced away.

But as it was approaching Lowick, Jayne’s waters broke. The ambulance pulled up as Jayne felt the baby’s head was coming. Michael looked and within a minute or two he had delivered a fit and healthy little girl.

The paramedic passed him a pair of scissors and he cut the umbilical cord.

The delighted parents were eventually taken on to the Borders hospital, where Hollie Potts weighed in at 6lb 9oz.

Michael said last night: “The birth was just so quick, it was no more than two minutes. I can remember looking down and just seeing a little head of dark hair.

“The head appeared, I grabbed the head and the whole rest of her just appeared.

“I just grabbed hold of her and lifted her up. It was fortunately just a nice, straightforward delivery.”

Michael revealed he had wanted to play as much of a part in the birth as possible and that he had hoped for a little girl.

“Everything I have wanted I got. It was emotional, there were a couple of tears in the eyes – tears of happiness. It was the proudest moment of my life.”

Jayne told how she had expecting to be induced and was set on a water birth.

“It did not happen that way. Everything kind of went out of the window, but everything was fine, everything was perfect in the ambulance. Lying in the ambulance I was not panicking, half of me thought it was going to happen.”

Marty McCulloch was born in an ambulance which was trying to get mother Louise from her Berwick home to Wansbeck General Hospital at Ashington, on October 31.

Mrs McCulloch had arranged to give birth at her home town’s maternity unit, but it was temporarily closed by hospital bosses Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

It remains shut and health commissioners NHS North of Tyne are to discuss its future at a meeting tomorrow.