Scottish pastor experiences own Christmas miracle

Conrad Pomeroy, a pastor in Dundee, Scotland, had an eventful but ultimately blessed Christmas this year when his wife gave birth to their son three months early in the bath on Christmas Day.

Baby Joel Pomeroy was not breathing when he was born but thanks to advice from a 999 call handler, his parents Conrad and Ceri Pomeroy were able to give him mouth to mouth assistance.

Ceri Pomeroy, 34, began having pains on Christmas Eve. She was assured by the hospital, however, that the pains were to be expected throughout her pregnancy and did not believe she was about to give birth.

The pains continued on Christmas Day and that evening while Ceri Pomeroy was in the bath and Conrad was speaking to a 999 call handler, the baby was born.

Joel Pomeroy weighed 3lbs 10.5oz when he was born. After receiving mouth to mouth he was put on a ventilator at a hospital. He is now able to breathe on his own.

Conrad is the pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Dundee. Speaking to the BBC Scotland News website he said, "We managed to get her out of the bath and him into a towel on the bathroom floor and it wasn't long after that the ambulance arrived and they took over.

"You just get on with it. This baby was there and he wasn't breathing and we knew we had to do some mouth-to-mouth.

"We're Christians and we firmly believe that God had his hand on the whole situation, and we're very thankful he's doing ok.

"I'd been saying to my flock that when Jesus was born, he'd left heaven in the presence of all these angels, and there he was being born into a stable with probably not even a midwife to help at the birth, and little did I know that we were going to be in a similar situation a few hours later."