Mum Gives Birth On Bathroom Floor In EIGHT MINUTES

Mum Gives Birth On Bathroom Floor In EIGHT MINUTES
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PA

As super-speedy birth stories go, Natalie Dunleavy's is worthy of an Olympic gold after she had her baby in just EIGHT minutes.

It might not quite make the record books, but it will certainly make thousands of new mums who have endured 40-hour labours green with envy.

"It was so quick it was unbelievable," said Natalie, 22. "It was an amazing experience to remember."

Natalie started getting pains in the early hours of the morning but dismissed them because she had been suffering from an upset stomach.

"But then the pains started to get unbearable," she recalled.

"I just had this urge to go to the toilet, I didn't know why... and my waters just burst and went all over the floor. That's when I knew."

Her partner, Joshua Courtney, 21, advised by a midwife over the phone, helped Natalie give birth to daughter Bo-Pierre, who weighed 8lb 4oz, on the bathroom floor at their home in Wakefield, West Yorks.

Natalie said she was scared when she realised how quickly the labour was progressing, because her daughter had developed Group B streptococcus (GBS) and midwives had told her she would need intravenous antibiotics in the hours before she gave birth.

GBS is the most common cause of life-threatening infections in newborn babies in the UK.

"I just started panicking and screaming," Natalie said. "Then I realised that I didn't have a choice anyway and there was nothing I could do to stop her coming out."

Bo-Pierre was later given the all-clear after a course of antibiotics.

Joshua said he was "absolutely terrified" during the birth.

"I was on the phone to the midwife and all of a sudden Natalie said to me that her waters had broken," he said.

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I ran back into the bathroom panicking like mad. The woman on the phone was trying to calm me down.

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After checking that the umbilical cord was not wrapped around the baby's neck, Joshua helped deliver his daughter, rubbed her back to get her to breathe and covered her in towels to keep her warm.

"I didn't believe it was me that did it, I think my body went into auto pilot," he said.

He said of his daughter: "She's absolutely brilliant. She's perfect. She's a gift."

Check out some other amazing high speed birth stories below.