A teacher who gave birth in a classroom thanked the three classroom assistants who delivered her baby in a visit to the school on Friday.
Diane Krish-Veeramany, 30, was working up until the week she was due at Manford Primary School in Manford Way, Hainault, when her labour started on September 12.
An ambulance could not reach her in time when the lightning-speed labour lasted just 20 minutes but thanks to three teaching assistants, mum and baby made it through safe and well.
Sam Mustafa, Dita Gojnovci and Chris Sword delivered little Jonah in a classroom while taking instructions over the phone.
On Friday, Diane gave them flowers and matching bracelets to thank them.
She said: “What amazed me wasn’t just how they helped me having a child, but how they then went straight back into class to carry on teaching.
“They are three very special ladies who I count as friends as well as colleagues.
“We now have a very special place in each others’ lives.”
Chris, 54, said she acted on “instinct” during the birth, patting and rubbing baby Jonah when he didn’t cry.
She added: “It so surreal. I think about it every day and think: ‘God, that happened. She had a baby in class.’
“You see things on television with people having babies and I just reacted.
“We were already close, the school is very close-knit, but there’s definitely going to be a connection for life.”
Diane was also showered with presents from excited children and staff, including a school uniform baby grow for Jonah.
The hands on the school’s clock tower logo were set to the time he was born in the classroom re-named “Jonah’s room”.
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