FOR courier Stuart Gray, it was a delivery he will never forget.

Driving his pregnant wife to hospital to give birth to her fourth child, his worst fears were confirmed when she demanded that he pull over.

Sarah had realised she was not going to get to the Princess Anne Hospital in time as the couple were stuck in rushhour traffic on busy Burgess Road in Southampton.

With her contractions becoming more frequent, Sarah told Stuart to stop the car, a Vauxhall Zafira, so she could give birth in the passenger seat. The 34- year-old dad had just seconds to race round the car and help bring his son into the world.

“I wasn’t really prepared for it. I was very scared. I was running around like a madman trying to get hold of the emergency services and screaming for an ambulance,” Stuart told the Daily Echo.

Sarah, 32, added: “The baby’s head was already out and I was trying to stand up in the car. Stuart had to quickly get out of the car, grab the mobile phone and run round to the other side of the car and catch the baby before he fell into the foot well.”

They wrapped up the baby boy in a coat to keep him warm until paramedics and police arrived.

Aside from a few breathing problems in the first 24 hours, James was healthy – weighing in at 10lb 4.5oz.

It is not the first time the Grays have faced a race to get Sarah to the hospital in time. She only just made it for each of her three previous children – Sophie, 13, Samuel, four and two-year-old Chloe. She said: “They have all been quite quick, we expected it to be a quick delivery.

“We did leave the house at the right time. We left at the moment we knew I was in labour.

“We were going through our phone logs afterwards. I phoned my mum in the car at 5.13pm to say I was on the way to the hospital. I was having a calm chat. By 5.30pm it had all changed and the next call was to the emergency services.”

Stuart was particularly grateful to a young woman who stopped to help while the couple were sat at the roadside.

She said she was a student nurse and stayed until help arrived.

The family are now all back together at their home in Loane Road, Sholing.