BAYLEY IN RUSH TO JOIN FAMILY

AYOUNG mum who didn’t realise she was in labour gave birth to her baby daughter on her bathroom floor. Beth Evans, who was visiting the bathroom at her home in Hirwaun in the middle of the night, frantically telephoned her partner Matthew Linton, who was in a deep sleep upstairs, when she realised their second child was about to put in an imminent appearance.

And less than 10 minutes later daughter Bayley arrived. The delivery was so swift that the midwife and paramedics, who had been called and were on their way just minutes later, were too late to help.

The 21-year-old Costa worker said: “We had a normal family day beforehand, with me and my partner and our son Morgan, who is 13 months old.

“It was August 11 and I was due on August 16. I had got up as normal to go to the toilet, and I had some slight pains. I thought that was wrong so I called my midwife, who advised me to have a warm bath.

“But even as we were having a conversation I didn’t think I was in labour. I had got into the bath and my partner Matthew was still asleep in bed.

“Then suddenly I could not move. I had my phone with me so I called Matthew to come down”.

Realising the urgency of the situation, Welsh Water worker Matthew telephoned his mother to come and to keep watch over the couple’s son, Morgan, and dialled 999 to call for emergency help.

But Beth said: “As he was on the phone, the baby started coming out. The people on the phone talked him through what he had to do, told him to get some hot dry towels and to use a shoe lace to tie the umbilical cord.

“Just seven minutes after I rang him, the baby arrived. She was ready to come out.”

Happily, despite the speed with which young Bayley arrived, both mother and baby were fine after the experience.

Minutes later, the midwife and an ambulance arrived at the couple’s home in Elm Grove, but with the delivery having been safe and Bayley and Beth none the worse for the drama, there was no need to go to hospital and the family were left at home to come to terms with the experience.

Beth said: “I felt fine in myself. In fact, later on I was mopping the floors and washing the towels. And Matthew was fabulous, but he was white as a sheet.”