GRANDMOTHER Mandy Hampton answered her daughter’s call for support when she went into labour - and ended up delivering her first granddaughter herself.
Mandy’s daughter Natalie Davies phoned her mum, who was due to be one of her birthing partners, when her waters broke in the early hours of Friday morning.
But when Mandy arrived at her daughter’s home in Llanfaes, Brecon she realised Natalie’s husband Huw wouldn’t be able to get them to Nevill Hall Hospital, 20 miles away in Abergavenny, in time.
Mandy said: "I walked in and Natalie was walking about in pain and asked Huw what time the midwife was coming. He said she wasn’t coming and to take Natalie to Nevill Hall but the contractions were every two minutes and I said she wouldn’t make it.
"We rang 999 and the ambulance operator talked me through it. The operator asked can you see the head and I said no and he said that’s good you’ve got plenty of time and then she gave one big push and the head was out.
"I was told to support the head and shoulders and Natalie gave one more push and she was out."
Baby Madeleine Jane Davies was born at 2.48am on Friday morning, some five minutes before the ambulance crew and a midwife arrived at the house.
Natalie, who is also mum to Callum, seven, Logan, four, and two-year-old Coran, wasn’t expected to give birth until this Friday.
But she said she was pleased to have had the unexpected experience of a home birth: "It was nice but it was quite frightening as we didn’t have a midwife or the ambulance here. It was quite a surreal experience but it was nice.
"My mum was a nervous wreck and she was panicking but she did it and she was great."
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