WHEN pregnant Lindsay Masvaleix sat down to watch a movie with her husband, she never dreamed that an hour later they would be holding their new-born son.
But not far into the Hollywood movie Lincoln, about famous US president Abraham Lincoln, the 37-year-old mother-of-one went into labour and was forced to call 999 after their calls to the maternity unit went unanswered.
This week she met the paramedics to say thank you for delivering baby Théo safely.
"Me and my husband were watching Lincoln and I began to feel pains in my tummy," said Lindsay of Helson Road, Chelmsford.
"The midwife had visited earlier that day and had warned me that because I was several days overdue I might feel period-type pains, so I thought it was that at first. Then I realised that it was far more than that and I was in labour. As I shifted positions my waters broke.
"I screamed at my husband 'I think I'm having a baby, stop watching the film'."
After husband Fabien's calls to the maternity unit were unsuccessful, the worried couple turned to Lindsay's brother, Lee Cutter, a paramedic of nine years' experience, who raced to the scene to find his sister leaning over the bed screaming.
"I got a panicked call from my brother-in-law telling me Lindsay's waters had broken and so I grabbed my car keys and rushed straight over. Luckily I only live around the corner," he said.
"When I got there I told her to take her leggings off because I could tell the baby was well on the way.
"I told Fabien to call 999 and ask for an ambulance because I did not have any of the equipment which we carry in the ambulances to deliver a baby."
The ambulance carrying paramedics Karen Frost and Ian Jones, who were close to finishing their shift on that bank holiday Monday night on May 26, arrived swiftly.
"I had never delivered a baby before in my service with the ambulance," said Ian, "Although I have two children of my own, delivering one is something very different."
But 20 minutes later baby Théo was born.
"The paramedics did an absolutely brilliant job," said Lindsay. "Childbirth is loaded with things that can go wrong quite quickly but luckily everything went so smoothly and Karen was excellent at keeping everything calm."
Lindsay's four-year-old daughter Emmeline slept through the entire ordeal.
"She usually wakes up and stampedes into my room like a little dinosaur," added Lindsay.
"When she came into my room the morning after I gave birth and saw Théo for the first time in my arms she gasped and a huge smile spread across her face."
"I was utterly shell-shocked afterwards but I am relieved it was all over so quickly," she added. "My husband still wants to find out how the film ended."
