WHILE everyone else was tucking into their Christmas dinner, Emma Reed received the greatest present of all – her first child.

Jake Reed entered the world at Basingstoke hospital at 12.19pm on Christmas Day, weighing a healthy 7lbs 13oz.

For proud mum Emma, it marked the end of a 25-hour labour that started when she was at home in School Close, Worting, Basingstoke, with her husband Robert.

The 31-year-old teaching assistant said: “It was okay at first and I thought it would be quite quick and finish that day, but unfortunately he did not want to come out so it ended up being an emergency caesarean.

“It was a bit scary but the care has been really, really good. All the staff were brilliant.”

The original due date was Christmas Eve, but it was later amended to Boxing Day following a scan. The couple said they have not decided how best to celebrate Jake’s birthday and Christmas.

Robert, 30, said he would like his son to have a birthday celebration at another point in year, while Emma wants to make Christmas Day a bumper celebration.

Jade Whitworth, 21, had just finished eating her Christmas dinner when her contractions started at around 2pm.

Four-and-a-half hours later she gave birth to her third child, Kian Turner, who also weighed 7lbs 13oz.

It was the second year in a row that Jade and her partner Lee Turner, 26, have spent Christmas at Basingstoke hospital, in Aldermaston Road - coincidentally her second child was born on Boxing Day last year.

The pair travelled to Basingstoke from their home in Hermitage, West Berkshire, because they prefer it to hospitals in Reading or Swindon that are closer to where they live.

She said: “We have met a few of the staff that we saw last year. They are lovely. We had to travel here but it was worth it.”

In total three babies were born with the help of staff at Basingstoke hospital, with the third being a home birth.