AN OFF-DUTY paramedic and a nurse from Newport came to the rescue when their neighbour went into labour.

When paramedic Lee Wadley and his wife Rachel, a maternity triage nurse, were called over to their neighbour's house after coming home from celebrating their son's 16th birthday on Sunday, January 23, they couldn't have been prepared for what was about to happen.

Their neighbour's daughter, Laura Clarke, 31, was about to give birth - and a mix-up with the contractions left her no time to get to hospital.

Mr Wadley, who is a paramedic with the Welsh Ambulance Service’s Hazardous Area Response Team in Bridgend, said: "We arrived home about 10.30pm and were getting ready for bed when the phone rang and Trevor, our neighbour and Laura’s dad, told us Laura was about to give birth and asked could we go to their house to help.

"Laura only lives round the corner so my eldest son drove us round there.

"It was a bit frantic and I think they wanted someone to take charge of the situation.

"Rachel went in first and I got the phone off Trevor and spoke to control and assessed the situation, whilst checking on availability of an ambulance in case it was needed.

"My wife works as a maternity triage nurse at the Grange University Hospital, but has never delivered a baby before."

And there was no time to spare, with the baby boy very keen to get out into the world, and arrived "within minutes".

"I wasn’t too worried as I’d delivered a few babies over the years," said Mr Wadley.

"Rachel didn’t say it at the time but she was quite nervous.

"She did a great job and I didn’t need to intervene really and I’m very proud of her.

"The midwife was dispatched and everything was able to be done at the home which was nice."

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Baby Harrison was born at 10.51pm, and weighed 7lbs 8oz.

Mrs Clarke said: "We were on the phone to the hospital for the second time as my contractions increased and I was in a lot of pain.

"I said to Rhys (her husband), ‘I have to go, I need to go to the hospital’.

"We only live five minutes away from the hospital and as we went to get in the car my waters broke and I said ‘I’m not going anywhere now’."

Rhys Clarke, 33, said: "From then on in it was panic stations.

"I was grabbing towels, blankets off the couch, whatever I could find.

"Trevor and I had been timing the contractions but accidentally including the gap between them so it looked like Laura was further away than we thought."

Mrs Clarke said: "My mum and dad were here too but none of us knew what we were doing to deliver a baby.

"Lee and Rachel are my parents’ next door neighbours and friends, they only live around the corner.

"I’ve known them most my life really and they’re more than friends as they’ve seen me grow up and we’ve had holidays and all sorts.

"My dad rang Lee and bless them, within four minutes they were at the house and took charge of the situation really and calmed us all down a bit."

Mr Clarke said that after the pair arrived, Harrison was born about 10 to 15 minutes afterwards.

He expressed his gratitude for Mr and Mrs Wadley saying "we can't thank Lee and Rachel enough for what they did".

Mrs Clarke said: “They’re going to have a special bond with Harrison, not just because they’re friends but because they delivered him and that’s going to be very special going forward.

"Harrison is doing great and we’re all besotted with him, especially his sister Layla.

"He’s piling his weight on too which is fantastic."