ALISON Shannon gave birth to a bouncing baby daughter - thanks to a medic shouting instructions down a telephone line.

Her daughter, Grace, was born weighing a healthy 6lb, 12oz on her mother's bedroom floor at Yeadon after making a sudden arrival.

Her father Mark had alerted the emergency services but little Grace couldn't wait for an ambulance to arrive.

So West Yorkshire Ambulance medic Daniel Cordwell gave instructions by phone to a friend of the Shannons who relayed them to the couple upstairs.

Alison, 38, of Victoria Terrace, who already has a four-year-old daughter, said: "I'd been in labour on and off for two days and I was released from hospital in the morning because they thought the contractions had slowed down.

"Then suddenly instead of having them every ten minutes, they were every 30 seconds and I realised then there was no way I could move.

'I was quite calm but my friend and husband were very glad of the support from the emergency worker.

"It was a bit of a shock for all of us as she came out so quickly but the main thing was she was breathing properly.

"I could hear my friend, Anne, shouting the instructions up to us and I was shouting back telling her what was going on.

"We were all a bit shell-shocked afterwards because it all happened so fast.

"It was nice to know that somebody with medical knowledge was on hand to give us help.

"I had originally planned a water birth in hospital but in the end we were both healthy and the paramedics said we could stay at home."

Daniel, an emergency medical despatch worker, said: "It was quite nerve-wracking even though it was my second delivery over the phone. We got a call from Leeds General Infirmary who told us that the family needed an ambulance quickly.

"I phoned them back and it was clear that the baby was already on its way. The difficulty was that the phone was downstairs but the couple was upstairs. My main job was to calm their friend down and get her to relay instructions to them. It seemed to take forever and there was one point where I didn't hear anything for a few minutes.

"Once I knew the little girl was breathing it was a great feeling and they were all ecstatic. Even though it's my second delivery and I'm fully trained, it's still nerve-wracking as it is so unusual.The main concern is to clear the baby's airways and check she is breathing properly."

Grace was born just seconds before paramedic crews arrived at the house.

A spokesman for the West Yorkshire Metropolitan Ambulance Service said that it was unusual for babies to be born in this way.

"Surprisingly in the last few months we have had one or two babies being born at home while our workers have given them instructions over the phone," he said.

"But it's still fairly unusual for them to be delivered in this way.

"The other unconventional place that babies are often born is in the back of ambulances."

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