Stacy Roberts was in the right place at the wrong time after Ryan Paul Stobbs decided to make an early entrance.

The 23-year-old was attending the class at South Tyneside District Hospital with her partner of seven years, Paul Stobbs, 27, a call centre worker.

Her waters broke as she got up to ask the midwife a question and five hours later, she was holding her son. Ryan was born eight days early, on Sunday, September 28, weighing 7lb 3oz.

Miss Roberts, whose family now spans five generations, said: "It was a full-day course, but we only got an hour and a half into it.

"We had watched the birthing video and talked about the process before being sent on our dinner break.

"I stood up to ask the midwife a question and my waters broke. She took us into a room and my contractions started more or less straight away.

"Two hours later I was fully dilated and by 4.40pm he was born. It wasn't that bad at all."

The hairdresser, from Stanhope Road, South Shields, was expecting a difficult birth after suffering severe pelvic pain during her pregnancy.

She was diagnosed with symphisis pubis dysfunction, which rarely causes problems during labour, but can make some birthing positions uncomfortable.

"Ryan's the best thing ever. It's true you never know what love is until you have a baby. For the first couple of days I cried every time I looked at him."