Paramedics who arrived moments too late to help a mother who gave birth in her home ended up taking a different delivery - her weekly shopping!

Susan Cooper's husband Dave had just dealt with the sudden arrival of the couple's son Sam when the hastily summoned ambulance crew reached their house in Rochester.

Moments later, a Sainsbury's delivery driver arrived with their online order and it was down to the ambulancemen to take it in and unload.

So instead of announcing "it's a boy" or "it's a girl" it was a case of "it's your groceries".

Susan, 32, and 38-year-old Dave had planned a home birth for their second child, a brother to two-year-old Michael, and had arranged for a midwife to be present.

But Sam was in such a hurry to make his appearance there was not enough time for her or the emergency ambulance to get to the family's home in The Close.

Instead journalist Dave found himself at the centre of the story and delivered the baby in textbook fashion in their living room.

As he did so, Michael calmly watched children’s television, declaring "well done Mummy" when his little brother arrived.

Susan said: "It was sweet of Michael to say well done, but it's daddy who should be congratulated."

Dave said: "It wasn’t exactly what I had planned but it was pretty amazing. I was at Michael's birth, so I sort of knew what to do."

Susan, a freelance radio reporter with kmfm, said: "This was one deadline that could definitely not be shifted. What amused me most was my shopping turning up at the same time.

"Sam was only a day early - how often do you get two deliveries pretty much on time?"

She went into labour at about 8am on Tuesday, April 30 and the paramedics and midwife arrived between five and 10 minutes after the birth at 8.50am.

Sam weighed in at a healthy 7lbs 3oz.