Jacob is new unit’s first baby

NEW addition: (l-r) student midwife Heather Bloom, dad Rick, baby Jacob and mum Lynsey, with staff midwife Sue Nightingale.

A RECORD-BREAKING family is celebrating another achievement: first to have their baby at the Royal Oldham Hospital’s new maternity unit.

Jacob Leighton Allt was born at 9.03am yesterday - two hours after the unit’s official opening - to parents Lynsey McCamphill (23) and Rick Allt (31).

Lynsey believes the ambulance ride between the old and new wards caused her newcomer — due on November 29 — to finally arrive when he did.

“I’ve been eating spicy curries for two weeks,” she laughed. “But it was the bumpy ambulance ride that brought labour on properly, I’m sure of it.”

But 8lb 6oz Jacob isn’t the only member of the family keen on breaking birth records.

The couple’s eldest son, Ben, astounded nurses by weighing a whopping 9lb 11oz at birth five years ago.

The full-time mum, who spent a lot of time in and out of hospital due to complications, continued: “The staff have all been brilliant. This new bit of the hospital is just lovely.”

Rick, who has just completed a degree in building, added: “It’s private and you can’t hear anyone else. You’re just left to spend time with your family — how it should be.”

The hospital’s new £44m maternity unit and specialist neonatal intensive care unit fully opened to patients yesterday.

Expectant mums were transferred by ambulance from the old to the new wards at around 7am.