When Bromley couple Ellie O’Doherty and Jamie Pearce learnt they were going to have a baby, they planned for Ellie to have a calm and controlled birth.

Ellie, 30, wanted a water birth at Princess Royal University Hospital in Farnborough.

The plan was that her fiancé Jamie, 24, would accompany her and be close by for support. He did not realise at the time just how much support he would have to give.

The young couple were staying at Ellie’s mother’s holiday home on the Isle of Sheppey around the time Ellie was due to give birth.

Given that it was Ellie’s first child, they expected her to have a long birth and thought they would have plenty of time to drive the distance between Sheppey and the PRUH.

Their baby was due on Wednesday, August 9. On the evening of the Tuesday, August 8, the couple watched a film together and got ready to go to bed.

At around 10.15pm Ellie said that she needed to go to the loo. But before she could, she started getting contractions.

Without warning Ellie was in agony. The contractions lasted three minutes each and were coming fast; one every minute.

The couple rushed into their car and started driving towards the hospital in Bromley. Ellie’s mother Jacqui followed behind.

Jamie sped down the motorway and tried to concentrate on driving as his fiancée screamed in pain in the back seat.

The baby was coming far quicker than they expected and Jamie thought that Ellie might give birth before he got off the motorway.

He said: “My stomach dropped. I just thought ‘Oh God! He’s coming now.’ The only thing I felt was a rush of adrenaline. I just had to carry on. My focus tuned up a notch.

“It was all spurred on by this push of urgency. He was coming in a matter of minutes not hours. I thought we need to get there now.”

The couple were 15 minutes from the hospital when they hit road works. The whole of the M20 was blocked off.

Jamie was forced to take a longer route that took him through Dartford.

As the couple drove through Farnborough, Ellie told Jamie that she could feel the baby’s head.

Jamie believed his fiancée but tried to reassure her by saying that she was mistaken. He tried to keep her calm.

They finally arrived at the hospital car park at 12.15am. Jamie ran to the main entrance of the hospital but it was shut, so he ran to Accident and Emergency.

He told medical staff that his fiancée was having a baby outside in the car park and then he ran back to join Ellie.

Jamie pulled the car doors open to give Ellie space and then he saw the baby’s head pushing against Ellie’s underwear.

A nurse was on the way and so he told Ellie to hold on but she couldn’t help but push.

The baby’s head and shoulder came out so Jamie got to his knees and held him. Jamie asked Ellie to slow down but she could not and pushed again. Their baby was almost fully born.

The nurse arrived and Jamie handed the baby over. With one last push from Ellie the baby came out.

Jamie took his son from the nurse and put it against Ellie’s chest.

Ellie’s waters had broken inside the car and the birth had taken just two hours and a half hours.

Soon a group of people formed around the car. Ellie and her baby were put on a stretcher and wheeled up to the maternity ward.

Jamie said: “I thought 'I have nothing else to do'. I was no longer driving at high speed to get to the hospital, I was no longer responsible to make sure they were both ok. She was holding him and had doctors around her. I knew my job was done.”

The couple have named their new-born son Jasper and Jamie cut his umbilical cord.

Jamie said: “Being the father you are quite detached from the whole experience of pregnancy. There is nothing really changing for you, you aren’t getting bigger or feeling sick. You are carrying on with your life.

“It was an amazing thing. It was only at that point I got the time to digest what had gone on. When he got here It was euphoric, I felt a real sense of pride.”

The young couple are set to move to a new house in Bickley to start their family.