Little Herbie Hunter Girling certainly made waves when he came into the world - he was born aboard a houseboat.

New parents Josie Curran and Barney Girling live on the boat, moored off Taggs Island, Hampton Court, and although this kind of water birth might not be preferable for most mums, the couple had always planned the “home” birth.

And last month their plan went swimmingly, as 8lb Herbie cruised into the world in the early hours of the morning.

Josie said: “The hospital had wanted to induce us and we really had to persuade them to let us wait.

“We wouldn’t have been able to have him at home [if I had been induced]. It took a lot of persuading that we were fine.

“We were due to go in and be induced on the Monday - he must have been able to tell because he arrived on Sunday night.

“It was only five hours of proper labour, we were very lucky.

“We were tucked up in bed just after 2am, it was a very weird experience.”

Herbie is the first child for “suburban foragers” Josie, 31, and Barney, 35, who featured in the Richmond and Twickenham Times last month.

The couple are in the middle of a 12-month experiment to investigate to what extent people can forage and be “semi-self sufficient” in a suburban environment. They set up a blog - suburbanforagers.blogspot.com - where they explained the idea was to search for food in suburban landscapes and garden their way to home grown suppers.

“We'll be looking into whether it’s achievable and worth the bother or whether the supermarket remains the best option,” the pair wrote on the site.

The couple have kept the blog up to date since the birth of Herbie, who arrived more than two weeks later than planned.

The day after he was born - on October 19 - Josie wrote: “Our beautiful baby boy was born at home on the boat at 2am. With Barney’s paternity leave soon ending, the young Herbie is going to be my new foraging accomplice though I’m not sure how much value he’ll be able to add in the early days.”

Josie put her foraging down to a “nesting instinct gone a little awry” and made her own spicy fig chutney, rosehip syrup, crab apple jelly and a sweet chestnut rissotto in the run up to the birth.

The homegrown produce had been intended as Christmas presents but has now been eaten by the pair and Josie has started work on an allotment.

“There is not much out there to forage,” she added.

“We are using lots of stuff I made and at the moment it is more about the vegetable garden, that is progressing.

“People tell you how changed life will be [after having a baby], I’m finding the hardest part is not having any time to myself, I will have to get used to it.

“But I’m carrying on with the foraging.”