WHEN baby Beatrice Tindall decided to delay her arrival into the world until Christmas Day her mother, Audrie Woodhouse, breathed a sigh of relief.

Audrie, 35, told today how she had planned for her second child to be born in a birthing pool at her home in Welburn, near Malton.

But then the property was hit by a sequence of heating and water disasters in the wintry run-up to Christmas Eve.

First, the central heating system ran out of oil because deliveries were delayed by the snowy weather.

Then, after the fuel arrived, the boiler broke down because an airlock had developed in the system, caused by the previous lack of oil.

Finally, because the house was so cold a pipe in the loft burst, causing water to cascade down through the ceiling into the dining room.

Audrie said Beatrice had been due to arrive on December 21, but she did not go into labour until Christmas Day morning, when everything had been repaired.

However, because she was concerned she might not have enough hot water for the large birthing pool, a village hall organiser kindly lent her the hall’s geyser to top up supplies.

Beatrice was safely delivered at 7.40pm, weighing in at a healthy 9lbs, 6ozs. Audrie said she and Beatrice’s father, Andrew Tindall, had just had time to give Christmas presents to their one-year-old daughter, Aurehlia, in the morning before she went off for the day to her grandparents, who live nearby.

Audrie said: “I decided on a home birth because I wanted to stay with one of the group of midwives who delivered Aurehlia at Malton Hospital, which no longer has a maternity unit, because they were so brilliant.

“One midwife, Linda Fairclough, came out in the morning and then went home, returning as the labour moved on at 4pm, when another midwife, Kelly Binns, came as well. Linda was going to have her Christmas dinner when she went home but never managed it. I never got any Christmas dinner – I just had a ham sandwich!”

Audrie praised the midwives. “They were just so confident and experienced in doing home deliveries.”

She said she and Andrew had decided not to get each other presents this year, until Beatrice decided on her dramatic entrance into the world.

“She was our Christmas present,” Audrie said.