Jamie Oliver’s eldest children witnessed their mother, Jools, give birth this week. It prompted us to ask readers whether they have been present at the birth of someone else’s baby. From a birth on the 106 bus to helping deliver a neighbour’s baby, here are your stories.

Anna Bang, 52, Margate: I can’t have children myself so being present at a friend’s birth was incredible

I was present when my friend Emily gave birth. I was 42 at the time, and met Emily at my clothes stall in Portobello Market, London. The father jumped ship quite early on and she asked me to be her birthing partner. I was scared but said yes. I am so glad I did it. I can’t have children myself so it was incredible to be present.

We were there all day and night and what I remember most is wanting to sleep so desperately. That and seeing her daughter coming out – a bloody curled-up shape, turning into this living, breathing human. I remember the scream of the baby as it arrived, and cutting the cord (which was surprisingly tough) and Emily’s face, literally blank from exhaustion.

We are still friends and she’s an amazing mum. I now work as a nanny, and realise how alone and exhausted she must have felt, especially when her daughter was very young. I was not a good friend to her in those days; when you don’t have children you just don’t realise how incredibly exhausting the day-to-day existence of bringing one up is, especially as a single parent.

Megg, 52, Liverpool: A baby boy made his first sound on the 106 bus

It happened when I was on my way home from work. I was on the bus when I heard odd noises and my body went into high-alert mode. I thought, “there is something wrong”. That’s when I noticed a very distressed woman, writhing in her seat. I quickly realised she was pregnant and looked as though she was about to give birth.

Me and another woman told the driver to phone for an ambulance but I remember thinking that we needed to act quickly, and there was a lot of traffic on the road. Everybody realised that the bus was not going anywhere and the driver cleared all the passengers. I stayed and started rubbing the woman’s back (which was about the extent of my knowledge of childbirth). The pregnant woman was screaming and saying something in a language I didn’t know. Her partner translated it as: “The baby is coming.”

So I thought, well, it’s not going to get out through her trousers (possibly the only other bit of knowledge that I have about childbirth). It’s not easy taking a complete stranger’s trousers off in a bus on the side of the road, but I did it. A sort of bloody sack emerged out of the woman. Then I saw the head and finally a man in green uniform arrived and within minutes a baby boy was making his first sound on the 106 bus at Clapton Pond, north London.

As the new father held his son, the mum pointed to the man in green and said something, and I realised she wanted to know his name. “Jamie,” he said, and she pointed to her son and said “Jamie”, with an enormous delighted smile on her face.

Megan Crehan, 24, Manchester: I cut the umbilical cord

I was present at the birth of my half-sister, Lily, when I was 23. It was her mother’s second birth and she had decided to do it at home. She refused all pain medication, including gas and air, and had two midwives present.

It was very emotional to witness. I didn’t expect it to have any effect on me but, as my new sister emerged, the enormity of what was happening suddenly hit me. There’s no reason to feel embarrassed about where you happen to be looking. Sure you’re staring in between a woman’s legs but that doesn’t matter; what you’re seeing is incredible and I will never forget how I felt watching her bring a life into this world. I was the one who cut the cord. It was surprisingly spongy and easier to cut than you might think.

Keir Thorpe, 48, Bournemouth: My neighbour gave birth in our hallway

It was a Sunday afternoon in the summer of 1987. I was 19. Our next-door neighbour was pregnant with her fourth child and I remember her coming round to ask my mother to babysit her sons while she and her husband went to the hospital. She was sure the baby was coming. However, before she went she insisted on bringing the washing in. That’s when we realised that her waters had broken and the top of the baby’s head had emerged from between her legs. My mother was a former midwife but had not delivered a baby for 26 years. She called on me and my 17-year-old brother to take over the babysitting while she stepped in. My neighbour’s husband also phoned for an ambulance.

Fortunately the hall carpet was up and there was an inflated air bed in the front room. I helped drag it out while my brother looked after the boys. As my mother delivered the baby in the hallway, I had to fetch various items to assist, primarily pieces of string to tie off the umbilical cord as my mother did not want to cut it. My neighbour was very embarrassed at us seeing her give birth. The baby came out quickly and was fine. The ambulance finally turned up and took the mother and husband to the hospital. We looked after the three boys until their grandmother arrived and they proudly showed the stains on the floor, at which she was rather aghast. My father came home later asking whether anything exciting had happened that day.