Helen Skelton's dramatic kitchen floor birth - with the fire brigade in attendance
(Some might say she totally lucked out, of course...)
Now, we know a lot of celebs like to whip up a bit of drama around their birth stories, but there's no denying that Helen Skelton's is a bone fide jaw-dropper!
Speaking to this week's edition of Hello! magazine, the former Blue Peter presenter revealed that her labour with her second baby progressed so fast that not only were the neighbours involved, but the local firefighters, too.
Helen told the magazine that she phoned her husband, rugby league star Richie Myler, from their home in Perpignan, France, when she realised her contractions were starting.
Richie - who was in the UK at the time, in turn phoned one of their neighbours to summon help, but by then, there was no stopping Helen, who went on to deliver their second little boy on the kitchen floor.
"It was all a bit frantic. We are just so relieved he is safely here," Helen said of little Louis's rather rapid arrival, while explaining how she'd just got home from a walk with her 1-year-old son Ernie when her contractions started.
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"When I arrived back home I was getting a few pains. At first I thought it was because I’d been out for a long walk but then I could hardly move," she said. "I phoned Rich to say, ‘I think you need to get to the airport’."
Because Ernie's labour lasted 2 days, Helen assumed Rich would have plenty of time to get home - but says that things then happened so fast that within an hour of phoning her husband, she couldn't even get up off the floor.
Thankfully, help soon arrived - even if it was a fire engine rather than an ambulance!
"I’m still not really sure why the fire brigade arrived but it seems they were the closest emergency service at the time," Helen said.
"The firefighters were lovely and beside themselves with excitement as they said they hadn’t been at a birth before but, bless them, they weren’t up to speed with what you do, so they were all flapping."
Meanwhile, Richie, 26, said how in awe he is at his wife going through labour without any family there to support her: "I am really proud of her for doing it on her own. I know she must have been scared but she will never admit it," he said.
Aw, what a lovely birth story - and what a gorgeous family they are.
Pics: Helen Skelton/Instagram / Richie Myler/Instagram
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