A teenager delivered his baby son on the bathroom floor after his fiancée suddenly went into labour at their home.

Josh Greig, 18, was thrust into the role of midwife as Chelsea Cairns, 18, started giving birth on Monday, two days before their baby was due.

Although Josh, of Carlisle, is a farmer who works on his grandad’s farm near Annan – and has delivered many calves and lambs – he’s had no experience with human births at all.

He said: “I had no idea what to do. It just happened. I thought on the spot.”

After Chelsea’s waters broke, Josh grabbed the phone to call an ambulance. But, as he dialed, the baby started coming.

Josh rushed to the bathroom of the couple’s house on Orton Road, off Wigton Road and saw the baby’s head.

Because the pain was so intense, Josh had to help Chelsea onto the bathroom floor.

Instinct then took over and he encouraged her to push.

He said: “I just had to be there for her. I just didn’t want anything to go wrong. I kept thinking if anything went wrong, I’d never forgive myself.”

The baby’s head got stuck for about 10 seconds and then, within a minute, he had arrived.

Josh said: “I just had to keep reassuring her to keep pushing and she just pushed one more time and he came out.”

An ambulance arrived minutes after Michael Josh Greig was born at 2.22pm, weighing 6lbs 3oz. He has been named Michael after Josh’s dad.

Luckily Michael started screaming and breathing straightaway but unluckily he was heavier than expected.

Chelsea had taken two paracetamols but was so sick, she didn’t think they had much of an effect.

Thankfully, the fast pace of the birth helped.

She said: “I was worrying about the pain but it wasn’t as bad as I expected.

“The thing is, it was over with so quickly that I didn’t have to go through so much pain.”

Michael was born the day before Chelsea turned 18, so she said she had the best 18th birthday present she could ask for – bringing little Michael home with a clean bill of health.

Josh, who found it hard to leave Chelsea and Michael in the Cumberland Infirmary on Monday night, said: “It’s unreal, I love it.

“I don’t have a restriction on when I can see him or hug him.”

The midwives at the hospital jokingly offered Josh a job but he does not think midwifery is for him and said he’ll stick with farming.

“There was a difference doing it to being on the farm doing it because we have an aid or something to help on the farm and you know what to do,” he said.