A COUPLE will think twice about throwing the baby out with the bath water after their firstborn was delivered in the tub.

Norwegian translator Alvin Leer had to play midwife on Wednesday after his wife Trista McKae suddenly went in to labour.

The 28-year-old called the maternity ward at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital at 4pm when Mrs McKae, 27, started going into labour at their home in Milton three days before her due date.

He said: “The baby was in the third percentile for weight which is why we were going to the JR.

“They wanted to monitor the delivery.”

“I called when she was having contractions every five minutes, just to tell them to expect us.

“Usually you don’t go in until you get three contractions every 10 minutes so we were expecting a bit of a wait.”

But shortly before 5pm, Mrs McKae began having contractions with only a minute interval.

Realising the baby was coming, the couple got into the car, intending to drive to the JR.

But after pulling over at a petrol station off the A34 less than a mile from their house in Midwinter Avenue, Mrs McKae realised that the baby was coming.

Mr Leer said: “We got to the petrol station and Trista had the uncontrollable urge to push.

“She didn’t want to but we realised that she wasn’t going to make it to the JR.

“So I called an ambulance and the midwife and we made our way home.”

Mrs McKae, an online English teacher, said: “Once we pulled up my waters broke in the car.

“I just went into auto pilot, I remember going to the bathtub because it seemed like the best place.

“I’d prepared for all the circumstances I could think of – C-section, natural birth.

The only thing I didn’t imagine was this.”

After finding out the ambulance was travelling from Witney and as Mrs McKae’s delivery progressed, Mr Leer leaped into action and helped deliver the baby with the guidance of a community midwife over the phone.

He said: “I wasn’t planning on being involved in the delivery.

“I was hoping that I could stay up at the top and support Trista.

“But I went into a sort of survival mode basically.

“The baby had to come and the midwife instructed me what to do.

“I’ve never had any experience of this sort of thing at all.”

After a rapid delivery Mrs McKae gave birth to 5lbs 12oz baby girl Emeline Rose at 5.14pm.

Mrs McKae said: “Alvin was amazing. He looked so calm.

“I was scared as this was my first baby and I never imagined giving birth alone.

“I didn’t want to give birth without a midwife or doctor but she just needed to come out. It certainly has been an eventful few days.”

Mr Leer added: “It was such a fast delivery and would’ve been the dream pregnancy if Trista wasn’t scared.

“The midwife was absolutely brilliant and really helpful, as were the ambulance drivers.”

Spokeswoman for South Central Ambulance Service Catherine Morrow said: “The crew carried out an assessment of mum Trista and baby Emeline Rose before conveying them to hospital for routine checks.

“We wish Trista, Emeline Rose and Alvin our best wishes at this happy time.”

Mr Leer and Mrs McKae are planning to have a second child in a couple of years.

But Mr Leer said: “For that one we’ve been advised by about 20 or 30 different people to plan a home birth – even if we do end up going to the hospital.

“We know that Trista goes very fast now so we’ll have to have a midwife on standby.”

After living in Miami, Florida, Mr Leer and Mrs McKae, who have been married for five years, settled in Milton in September to be nearer to London, where they met as students in 2007.