Mother assists in Caesarean delivery of her baby in one of the first such procedures in UK

Credit: NHS Lanarkshire/Leila El Alt

By Nick Forbes, PA and Claudia Tanner

It was a very unusual request for the obstetrics team at University Hospital Wishaw in North Lanarkshire.

Pregnant with her third child, Leila El Alti told medics that she wanted to be very hands on and help deliver her child during her Caesarean.

It would be the first time a "maternal-assisted" C-section would be carried out at the trust and indeed thought to be the first in Scotland. But that didn’t stop the staff from doing all they could to carry out the mother’s wishes.

And so Leila El Alti, 39, who is from West Lothian and originally from Lebanon, donned scrubs and effectively became part of the operating theatre team carrying out the procedure to deliver her daughter Aurora.

The medical team at NHS Lanarkshire performed a full-scale simulation using a doll before the surgery, which was a first for the clinicians involved.

Speaking at a meeting of NHS Lanarkshire health board on Thursday, Ms El Alti said she was “delighted” when the team agreed to her request.