Cute little boy feeding his puppy...

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YouTube helps man deliver baby! Amazing Cyber Stories David Lim, Auckland

Marc Stephens watches an internet video to help deliver his wife's baby

An engineer in Cornwall delivered his baby son after watching an instructional video on YouTube.

Marc Stephens watched the videos as a precaution when his wife Jo started to feel some discomfort.

Four hours later, his wife went into labour and started giving birth before an ambulance could arrive at their home in Redruth.

"I Googled how to deliver a baby, watched a few videos and basically swotted up," Mr Stephens told the BBC.

Jo Stephens said they had planned a home birth, but not quite in this manner.

"I woke up and realised I was having contractions every five minutes," Mrs Stephens said.

"I woke Marc up and we phoned the midwife, but they were all so busy they couldn't come round to our house and told us to call an ambulance. But before it arrived, it all started."

Preparation

A few hours earlier, Mr Stephens has been reading up on home births and how to cope with anything unexpected.

"The videos gave me peace of mind. I think I would have coped, but watching videos made things much easier."

Mr Stephens said his wife was on all fours when he saw the head starting to come out.

"This is our fourth child now and while for our first I spent most of the time at my wife's head, now I'm not afraid to go down to the business end.

"I was still on the phone to the midwife and told her that 'this is it'," he said.

Mr Stephens said he felt no panic, putting his ability to stay calm down to his Royal Navy training.

After delivering the 5lbs 5oz boy, Gabriel, the Stephens went to the Royal Cornwall Hospital at Treliske, where both mother and baby got a clean bill of health.

Austria relieved at Fritzl verdict (World News).

Josef Fritzl's life sentence is widely welcomed in Austria's newspapers.

There's a clear sense of relief with headlines in the popular Kronen Zeitung and Der Standard proclaiming "Life for Josef F".

The front page of the daily Heute carries a colourful scene from Hieronymus Bosch's painting The Last Judgement, with the words "That's the way: life sentence!"

There is no rush to criticise the police or other agencies for failing to prevent his crime.

Many of the papers pore over the details and emotion of the trial.

Austria's tabloid Kurier says it was Fritzl's daughter who made sure that he would receive a life term.

With her 11-hour video statement and her surprise appearance in person at the trial, she wanted to ensure her father wouldn't "escape through a back door", says Kurier.

Most of the papers try to capture the drama of the final day in court. Der Standard quotes the final statement of the daughter's court representative, Eva Plaz.

She stressed that her client wanted the accused to be held to account for the death of her child.

By contrast, says the paper, the defence lawyer used such passionate phrasing in his opposition to the murder charge, that he twice drew laughter from the courtroom.

There's much praise for the way the trial was conducted. Kurier describes the performance of the 32-year-old prosecutor, Christiane Burkheiser, as a great success.

She took over the case after just 11 months in office, says the paper, and managed to get convictions on all counts.

Der Standard also applauds the professionalism of the court, noting what it called the unpretentious appearances of the judge and state prosecutor and the competence of the daughter's court representative.

"It should not go unremarked," says the paper, "that all of these were women."

In an editorial, Der Standard goes on to address criticism of the speed of the trial.

"Why prolong the process when the facts are clear," it asks. "Wilfully dragging out the trial would have served only to satisfy a desire for sensation."

Away from the courtroom Die Presse returns to Amstetten, the Fritzls' home town, where many of the locals are weary of the bad publicity caused by their most infamous resident.

One says he's heard how schoolchildren from Amstetten were taking a skiing course in the resort of Obertauern, when some of the pupils were asked whether they were Fritzl's children. "What nonsense is this?", the resident asks.

But the Mayor of Amstetten is more hopeful, says Die Presse. "The verdict is what everyone was hoping for," he told the paper. "A dark chapter in the history of our town is now closed."

Virgen Maria Gave Birth to Baby Jesus, Peru, Virgin Mary

A Peruvian woman called Virgen Maria, who is married to a carpenter, has named her son Jesus Emanuel after giving birth on Christmas Day.

Twenty-year-old Virgen Maria Huarcaya Palomino had not been due to give birth on Thursday, but went into labour early and underwent a Caesarean operation.

Her husband, who shares the same profession as Saint Joseph, is in fact called Adolfo Jorge Huaman.

He said the couple had been planning to name their son after a football player.

"But thanks to a happy coincidence this is how things ended up," he said.

Baby Jesus was born at 0220 local time (0720 GMT) on 25 December at the National Perinatal Institute in Lima and weighed 3.32kg.

His mother said: "I am so happy to give birth on such a special date. I didn't think that my baby was going to be born today and now that I have him in my arms I am very happy."

Virgen Maria means Virgin Mary in English. She told local television that her grandfather, a devotee of the Virgin Mary, had chosen her own unusual name, with which, until now, she had not felt comfortable. "In school they made fun of my name," she said.

At 20:28 HRS, 28-12-2008; 6,287 visited this blog.