Woman forced to give birth in hospital corridor after being turned away from two other hospitals

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Humiliated new mother Emma Johnson gave birth in a hallway at the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath, West Sussex.

She plans to make an official complaint to NHS bosses after staff at two hospitals refused to admit her because there were no beds available.

Relief: Emma Johnson, Ed Prior and baby Sienna after their birthing trauma

Miss Johnson and boyfriend Edward Prior, 23, called at their local hospital - the Royal Sussex in Brighton - after she went into labour at 1.15am on Tuesday, but the couple were told there were no beds.

Staff there also advised them that there were no free beds at Worthing Hospital, meaning Miss Johnson had to endure an unconventional and uncomfortable birth on the floor of a corridor at the Princess Royal - 20 miles away from the couple's Brighton home.

Miss Johnson said today : 'I feel really cross about it.

'We could have gone to the Royal Sussex Hospital in Brighton in about 10 minutes and then we wouldn't have had all this.

Final stop: Miss Johnson got to the Princess Royal Hospital in the nick of time

'The staff were nice once we arrived but this shouldn't have happened in the first place.

'It was extra stress for me at an already difficult time.'

Mr Prior, who works at an Asda supermarket, added: 'The midwives all rushed to help but there was no time to do anything before the baby arrived.

'We only just got there in the nick of time. A few minutes more and it would have been in the car park.

'It took 40 minutes to get there from Brighton and at one point I thought she was going to have the baby in the car.'

A spokesman for Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals Trust said: 'We do everything we can to ensure women are able to give birth in a hospital of their choice.

'We are sorry that this was clearly not Miss Johnson's experience.

'Occasionally if a site is very busy we have to ask mums to travel but we do this as infrequently as possible because we know it is not what mums want.'