Staff at a London baby store got an unexpected delivery when a mother’s waters broke early while she was out shopping.
Angela Cook, 40, was 35 weeks pregnant and looking for a baby car seat in the Westfield Stratford branch of Mamas & Papas when she started bleeding heavily.
A sales assistant rushed to her help and called 999 as other staff gathered items from the shelves.
When the ambulance arrived, store manager Briony Butler went with Ms Cook to Homerton Hospital and held her hand on the way.
Ms Cook, an operations manager at a bus company, was told she needed to undergo an emergency caesarean because she had lost so much blood.
She eventually gave birth to daughter Laney at 10pm. She named her after her former partner Kevin Lane, who was killed while cycling in Woodford Green in 2014.
Ms Cook told the Evening Standard: “It was a pretty scary time, but made so much easier by the people I met in the store. I am so grateful to the whole staff.
“What happened was really traumatic but they really went above and beyond the call of duty. I can’t get over how great they were, they just made everything feel so much better.”
While waiting for the caesarean she received a delivery of a different kind — blankets, nappies, breast pads, energy bars and a car seat sent from the Mamas & Papas staff who had helped her.
Ms Butler, 37, spent four hours comforting Ms Cook as she waited to undergo the procedure in hospital.
What happened was really traumatic but [the staff] really went above and beyond
Ms Cook’s current partner arrived at hospital in time for the birth, and the new mother got to hold her daughter for just a few seconds before she was taken into intensive care for nine days.
Both are now home, and one of their first trips out together was to visit the staff at the store. She said: “The first thing I felt like doing was really to just go back to the shop and thank everyone for everything they had done."
Ms Butler told the Evening Standard: “I will never forget the day Angela popped into the store with little Laney in her arms.
“I got to hold the baby and seeing them both healthy and happy was just really emotional”.
