A Hermes delivery driver made a special delivery on his day off – when he ended up delivering his own BABY at home after a labour that lasted just five minutes.
Peter O’Sullivan, 40, is used to delivering around 300 parcels per day in his Hermes delivery van – but wasn’t expecting to get woken by partner Sarah Sharps in the middle of the night to deliver their son.
Peter barely had time to call their midwife and tell her to come over, before Sarah, 38, popped out baby Leighton right on their bedroom floor, on April 5.
And when their midwife, Lou, did hop in her car to drive over and check on Leighton, she got pulled over by police, who were ready to hand out a fine for flouting lockdown rules.
Mum-of-five Sarah, from Faringdon, Oxon., said: “It was just crazy. I woke up at about 4.25am with a bit of back pain, but I thought that was just from sleeping on my side.
“And then when I got out bed, my waters broke. I had to wake Pete up to let him know it was happening.
“He asked me if I had called the midwife, but I knew it was going to be quick. He had to deliver our baby on the bedroom floor – within five minutes our son was born.”
Sarah added: “Now I tell people that he only has Sundays off work, but he didn’t that day as he had a special delivery to make.”
Sarah, who is also mum to two other sons and two daughters, aged 23, 20, 12, and 11, is no stranger to home births, having delivered her 12-year-old and 11-year-old at home, too.
And her labours have halved in time with each birth – with her eldest being born in two hours, her second eldest born in an hour, her third child born in 30 minutes, and her fourth born in just 15 minutes.
She said: “Pete delivered our second-youngest as well, as he was also born too quickly for our midwife at the time to make it in time.
“After Leighton was born, I said to Pete, I don’t know what all the fuss was about. It was the easiest thing in the world. It was all a bit surreal.
“He was 999 – nine pound nine, and nine days early – but luckily we didn’t need to call 999.”
Sarah added: “The hardest thing was actually having a newborn in lockdown – we’ve had no health visitors, and my midwife has only come out once to weigh him, to put my mind at ease.
“Even my two eldest, who don’t live at home, weren’t able to come and meet their baby brother for a few weeks.
“He takes our mind off the world right now, he brings a joy to every day in lockdown.”