A FATHER has spoken about the moment he helped delivery his daughter on the bathroom floor after her umbilical cord became wrapped around her neck.

Steven Gibson had to turn midwife after his wife, Bryony, went into labour at their home in Chester-le-Street.

The speedy delivery caught the couple off-guard and they were unable to make it to the hospital.

Mr Gibson, a marketing manager, stayed calm, despite his wife losing a large amount of blood, and “I knew the ambulance was about ten minutes away and you just have to cross your fingers and hope everything will be okay – but it was pretty scary.

delivered the baby himself while receiving instructions from a 999 callhandler.

Mr Gibson said: “Bryony was tremendous, but all that goes through your head is that so much could go wrong. The umbilical cord was around the baby’s neck and I was worried.

“I was worried about that and I was worried about what it would mean afterwards.

"The 999 handler was great at keeping us all calm. I never caught his name, but he did great at helping us stem the blood. He was my best friend for 15 minutes.”

Olivia was born weighing 8lb 7oz as her elder brother Harry watched television downstairs, oblivious to the drama happening in his parents’ en-suite bathroom.

Mr Gibson said: “Obviously, we feel incredibly lucky.

Olivia’s wonderful and we have a story to tell her later in her life.”

Mrs Gibson, 35, a business director, had started having contractions just after midnight, but the labour was so fast that within 50 minutes of being awoken with pains she was holding her daughter in her arms.

An ambulance arrived ten minutes after the birth on March 18 to take mother and baby to the University Hospital of North Durham, in Durham City, from where they were discharged the next day.

Bryony said: “When Harry was born I was in labour for 60 hours, so I didn’t expect Olivia to be born so quickly.

“I was so consumed with my pain that I didn’t worry about what was happening, but it was scary for Steven.”