Iain Stirling admits he almost missed his daughter’s birth

It’s fair to say that 2021 is a big year for Iain Stirling and Laura Whitmore. Not only are they set to return to Celebrity Gogglebox next week and the long-awaited Love Island series 7 next month, they also welcomed their first child—a baby girl—in March this year.

Laura Whitmore’s birth story

Appearing on the podcast Lockdown Parenting Hell with fellow comedian dads Josh Widdicombe and Rob Beckett, Iain opened up about his daughter’s birth. He said:

All I remember really is, Laura was amazing. All my job was, I was to get Laura Lucozade. That was the one thing, to get her through it.

However, Iain got the wrong type of Lucozade and had to make a last-minute dash from the hospital to pick up an isotonic Lucozade. This almost ended in disaster as Laura went from just 4 centimetres dilated to nine centimetres dilated in the time it took him to nip to Tesco and back.

He said:

All I remember is that I got into the lift and it was the seventh floor and then three doctors get in the lift and they all start having a conversation about which floor they're going to. And I just turned and went: 'None of you press a f**king button on that because I am going up to seven, my wife is nine centimetres dilated.’

Framed umbilical cord & placenta gummy bears

Luckily, Iain made it in time for the birth of his daughter, with Laura’s labour lasting another hour after he arrived back in her hospital room. Elsewhere in the interview, Iain revealed that he and Laura got their daughter’s umbilical cord framed and the placenta made into gummy bears which they both ate.