A delivery man has lived up to his job title – but a completely different role description as he helped a woman give birth during his round. Hermes delivery driver Perry Ryan, 29, was on his rounds in Waterlooville, Hampshire, when he said he heard “an awful noise” which he said “sounded like someone was being murdered.” Perry, a former youth football player for Portsmouth FC, saw Khan Shoker, 30, whose waters had broken near the front door of her home and despite having “no idea what he was doing” helped her deliver her baby, Bella. Khan’s husband, Schar, got back from his trip to the shop just in time to see Bella being born, with Perry relaying instructions from a midwife on the phone. As the paramedics took over, Perry said he was “so shaken” by the afternoons events he missed some of his afternoon’s deliveries.
He said: “Mrs Shoker couldn’t speak very good English but then I heard her say ‘baby, baby, baby.’ “I then realised what was happening and shouted through the letterbox and called 999. I was trying to keep her calm and reassure her.” A few minutes later, Mr Shoker arrived home after getting a call from his partner. He said he was “shocked” to find his wife in the her last moments of labour in the doorway of their ground floor bedroom after he opened the front door.
Perry said: “He turned up and didn’t know what he was doing either. He was more shocked than me. “He didn’t speak very good English either but I started directing him what to do from the instructions I was being given on the phone – while trying to respect her privacy. “The mum’s legs were close to the [bedroom] door and I could start to see the baby before the dad pulled her out. The baby was crying which I was told was good news. The dad was about to pull the umbilical cord so I told him not to touch it. “He was amazing though. But it was a good job I was there otherwise he might have struggled on his own. The midwife on the phone was brilliant too. I think they found it funny. “I was shaking – it was mad what happened. I had to sit down for five minutes after it all as I was in shock. I missed some of my delivery slots as a result. “I don’t know what would have happened if things had started to go wrong. Neither of us had a clue what we were doing.
“I certainly didn’t expect that when I turned up to work, it was crazy.” Mr Shoker, who moved from Iraq to Britain in 2006, said: “I was on the phone to the hospital for nearly 15 minutes – they said, ‘go home and bring her to the hospital.’