A DAD turned ambulance driver to get his wife to hospital before their second son was born.

PE teacher Simon Meadows put the pedal to the metal to try to get Charlotte from their Stanway home to Colchester Hospital in time.

But little Leo wasn’t prepared to wait and ended up arriving in the footwell of the couple’s Vauxhall Insignia.

Charlotte was only pushing for 20 minutes before Simon completed the job by cutting the cord in the hospital car park.

Charlotte, 32, who is now recovering at home with healthy Leo, said: “I was in the front of the car on my knees. I almost caught him between my legs and brought him up to my chest, then turned around and sat down.”

The car had got as far at the Avenue of Remembrance.

Charlotte said she’d had Braxton hicks 24 hours before the birth and had her first contraction around 6pm.

Simon, 31, put their first son, Harley, two, to bed and Charlotte tried to relax by sitting on a gym ball and taking a bath.

By 10pm the couple went to bed still thinking time was on their side despite Charlotte’s contractions getting more intense.

“Even though we have one already, I didn’t think he was going to come out so quickly, I was 22 hours in labour with Harley.”

By 11.50pm Charlotte’s waters broke but they had to wait for Simon’s dad to arrive from Tiptree to babysit Harley.

“Simon got me in the car and we were waiting on the driveway. As soon as we saw my father-in-law, we went.

“I could feel Leo’s head crowning in the car before we left.

“Simon was fairly calm because he didn’t realise I had given birth until he got around the roundabout at the Avenue of Remembrance and he looked across and saw Leo on my chest.

“I was trying not to push to be honest but my body took over.”

Simon, who teaches at Maldon’s Plume School carefully overtook two cars on the quiet roads to the hospital, managing to phone ahead hands-free to warn of their arrival.

“When we got there, they clamped the cord and Simon cut it while we were in the car, then they took me inside.”

Leo weighted 6lb, 3 oz, and was allowed home with Charlotte by 8am that morning.

Charlotte, who’d planned on a water birth at the hospital, added: “Looking back we were a bit naïve about it, everyone says second babies come quickly was it was literal.

“I wouldn’t change it for the world, he is healthy and I’m healthy and that’s the most important thing.”