Congratulations to our colleague and proud dad Aaron Davidson who carried out a home delivery with a difference – his baby daughter Melissa!
When Aaron's wife Arlene went into labour they couldn't get to the hospital in time, so he called 999 and followed instructions over the phone while Arlene's mum Alison held her hand.
Aaron, who's fresh manager at our Grangemouth store, says mum and baby, who weighed in at 8lb 6oz, are doing fine.
Aaron said: "As you can imagine I was stressed out to the max, but I had no choice in the matter and had to do what I had to do! I was on loudspeaker so Arlene could hear and I was just saying 'push, push push' while Alison held her hand!
"I cannae thank that lady enough. She was amazing and I'll probably never, ever know who she was. She was definitely a lifesaver that day as I didn't really have a clue what I was doing. From the time I phoned 999 to Melissa being born was about eight minutes – a very, very quick eight minutes!
"Arlene's proud of me, but she's been joking that everyone's calling me the hero while she should be the hero for giving birth – and I said to her that she'll always be my hero!"
Thirty-one-year-old Aaron, who's currently covering at Asda Grangemouth from our Blantyre store, said: "Arlene was at full term and having contractions throughout the night and in the morning they were every ten minutes. So at 6am we phoned the hospital triage to say that it was obviously going to happen that day, but because the contractions were still ten minutes apart they said stay in the house and for Arlene to have a bath and take a paracetamol.
"She tried to relax as best she could in the circumstances and then she felt like it was happening! It was so quick. So I phoned Arlene's mum and dad, Alison and Jim, to get them to come to the house to look after Holly, otherwise she would have had to come to the hospital.
"We waited in the house for them to arrive, but by the time they arrived Arlene was already in labour. I phoned 999 and I asked to speak to ambulance and then the lady just talked me through what to do.
"She was basically telling me exactly what to do based on what I was telling her what was happening. As soon as I said that I could see the baby's head she told me we had a minute to get the baby fully out.
"I grabbed six towels from the cupboard and caught the baby as she came out. The lady on the phone was then saying to rub the nose and the mouth and as soon as her airways were clear she started crying which was a great sound! And then the woman on the phone asked me if it was a boy or a girl and I can just remember saying 'I don't even know'.
"Melissa was born at 7.55am and the ambulance got to us at 7.59am so they arrived just four minutes after she was born. Luckily there was no complications and I just sat in that position until the ambulance arrived and they took over and took Arlene to hospital.
"It was a once-in-a-life time experience and it was kind of cool too as her mum wouldn't have been able to see the birth as she wouldn't have been allowed in the the hospital and Holly got to see her sister five minutes after she was born too."
Aaron says his colleagues are proud of what he did, but he's getting a bit of friendly teasing too.
He said: "They've had a good laugh about it and keep saying that if anyone goes into labour in the store I can now help out!"
Grangemouth store manager Kevin McPhee said: "It must have been both fantastic and terrifying for Aaron at the same time! It was certainly an experience for him – one that he'll never forgot.
"He's done incredibly well and baby and mum are doing great so we're all so chuffed for him. It's a lovely story!"
