A JOINER-turned-midwife who delivered his own baby son in a hospital corridor has described the birth as "a piece of cake".

Little Samuel Rothwell was brought into the world in the foyer of the Royal Blackburn Hospital after mum Donna went into swift labour late last Friday.

Samuel, the seventh child of Donna, 37, and husband Lee, of Howard Street, Rishton, was in such a hurry that he arrived before the delivery ward.

But Lee, who has attended all his children’s births, remained calm and performed the delivery, even stopping the umbilical cord from wrapping around the baby’s head.

The birth was so quick that Samuel was back home with his family by Saturday teatime, while the only pain relief Donna had time for was two paracetamol tablets for a headache taken earlier in the day.

Samuel, born three days late and weighing 8lbs 2oz, is now being doted on by his parents and six siblings Bethany, 14, Leon, 11, Missy, seven, Marshall, five, Lucia, four and Matthias, two.

Donna had been to a school summer fair on Friday evening before her contractions began at around 10.30pm.

She explained: "I wasn’t suffering any pain or anything so I was just waiting for things to progress.

"I rang my mum to come and watch the children and on the journey from my house to the hospital I must have had two or three contractions.

"But by the time I got to the hospital doors I thought something’s happening here and I couldn’t make it to the labour ward."

Lee, 38, said: "Donna was saying his head was coming out and I thought ‘no it can’t be’. I couldn’t believe it. He just came out in one big push."

A few minutes later midwives, called to the foyer by a security guard, arrived and checked over mum and baby upstairs.

Donna said: "We stayed calm and because it was our seventh labour we didn’t panic. The midwife said it was quite common and women have been known to give birth in worse places, even the car park outside."

Angela O’Toole, labour ward manager, said: "We would like to offer our congratulations to Mrs Rothwell on the arrival of her new son and hope they both continue to do well. Some babies are born very quickly and this can be true of women who have had more than one baby."