Roundabout delivery for baby

Anxious dad Archie Paterson and his heavily pregnant partner Debbie Smith, with Debbie’s sister Megan, were heading for the Princess Royal Hospital in Glasgow when they were forced to pull over.

Within seconds they realised that they weren’t going to need the services of the hospital’s highly-trained team of midwives that night.

Archie, 32, a self-employed ceramic tiler, said: “Megan was fantastic - the baby couldn’t wait any longer and she delivered her right there, where we were parked near the roundabout on the back road to Croy.”

Two policemen whose car Archie had flagged down supplied extra help - including a police jacket for Debbie.

They told the couple they had had an unusually busy day, but that this episode was easily the most unusual - with the happiest ending.

Archie said: “We knew all along that we were going to have to move fast when the baby finally started to come.

“We had both got in around 8pm that night, and it was later when Debbie was in the bath that she knew we were going to have to go immediately.”

He added: “In some ways I wasn’t as worried as I might have been because I’m already a dad - Dixie has a two-year-old sister, Rhea.

“But we didn’t know Debbie would end up having her baby in a parked car at a roundabout - we’re just glad Megan was there and seemed to knoew exactly what to do.”

Debbie, 28, works at SSE in Cumbernauld, and colleagues there are delighted her adventure ended in the safe delivery of a beautiful baby girl.

An ambulance and paramedics arrived minutes later, to find mum and baby both safe and well, and Debbie - and Dixie - continued their interrupted journey to hospital.