A Monmouth couple have praised a paramedic after being helped through the unexpected home-birth of their first child.

Sarah McLaren had planned to give birth at Abergavenny's Nevill Hall Hospital but her labour progressed quicker than expected.

It looked as if husband Iain would have to deliver the baby himself but paramedic Alison Woodyatt arrived in the nick of time.

Sarah started having contractions on the evening of Sunday 9th March. By 2am the next morning her labour had progressed and contractions were 15 minutes apart.

"I contacted Nevill Hall, who gave us the correct advice; unless the contractions are happening every four minutes then stay at home," said Iain.

"At 6am on Monday the contractions progressed instantly from every 15 minutes to every minute.

"I rang the hospital back who told me to ring 999 right away. I was trying to get Sarah as comfortable as possible but by this point she'd had no pain relief and couldn't hold anything down."

Iain admitted to having a few nervous moments when he realised he might have to deliver the baby himself.

"I'd had plenty of conversations about the hospital birth" he added, "I was feeling nervous about being in the room, I wasn't feeling great about cutting the umbilical cord either."

But at 7am, paramedic Alison arrived and little Lloyd ap Robert was born minutes later.

"The paramedic was out of this world, she really was fantastic, she calmed me down and reassured Sarah," said Iain.

"Our baby boy was born at 7.16am and weighed five and a half pounds. We didn't have any fancy scales in the house so we weighed him on vegetable scales.

"After the paramedic left it was lovely to be in the house with all our things, if we knew how things were going to play out we would have considered a home birth.

"Lloyd ap Robert is a healthy adorable baby, and I did end up cutting the umbilical cord."

The couple hope to meet with Alison soon.