Vanessa Palmer, a mother of five, used her own experience and what she had learned from television programmes to bring baby Honor into the world.

Her daughter-in-law to be, Ashli Waters, 21, went into labour suddenly at her flat in Billy's Copse, Leigh Park.

In the panic Mrs Palmer sent the ambulance to the wrong address and before it could get to them 7lb 10oz Honor was on her way out – just 80 minutes after the first contraction.

Mrs Palmer, a housewife of Nightingale Road, Warblington, said: 'I was hanging out of the lounge window desperately trying to get reception on the mobile to speak to the ambulance service when my son Callum started shouting "I can see the head".

'When I realised it was going to happen there and then, I threw off my watch and washed my hands and told Ashli to get on the bed.

'Amazingly I then stopped panicking and just went into action doing what I remembered from when I had my kids. All I could think of was staying calm for Ashli. She was fantastic, bless her, and of course she didn't have any pain relief.'

Miss Waters, the manager of McDonalds in Havant, praised her future mother-in-law. She said: 'Vanessa was amazing. I didn't know until afterwards that she panicked when the baby came out and wasn't breathing. But she just scooped the mucus from Honor's mouth and nose and rubbed her back and she squeaked like a little hamster and we knew she was OK.'

When paramedics arrived they took Ashli, her fiance and Honor to St Mary's Hospital, Milton, Portsmouth for a check-up. The drama happened on Saturday, August 9.

Mrs Palmer said: 'The first my husband knew was a call from me saying I'd just delivered the baby.'