LITTLE Kiyomi Knapp made a dramatic entrance into the world – in the front seat of her parents’ car.

The special delivery occurred in the car park of Dorset County Hospital in Dorchester.

The bouncing baby girl arrived a week late but before her mum could make it to the maternity ward.

Mother Jackie Knapp, 36, was a week overdue and began having labour pains at 1pm on Wednesday.

By 2.20pm they arrived at the hospital car park, but by this time the baby’s head was showing and her husband Dave shouted for help.

Hospital healthcare assistant Denise Dargan, 56, was off duty and waiting for a lift home but dropped her purse and bag to help.

She said: “I rushed over without hesitation. This is the first time I have delivered a baby because I normally work as a healthcare assistant. I encouraged the mother to push there and then because by this stage there was not much else we could do and less than ten minutes later the baby had arrived.”

Denise wrapped the baby in her nursing uniform to keep her warm, and soon after the midwife came down to cut the cord while she was still holding her.

Father Dave Knapp, 43, who has four other boys called Oakley, Niran, Bodhi and Tenzin, added: “At the time it was very stressful, it’s only now we see the funny side of it.

“We are extremely grateful to her, she was terrific and brought a life into this world and we can never thank her enough.”

Kiyomi, weighing nine pounds and four ounces, was born at 2.37pm. The family are now home and coping well.

Denise lives in Bridport and has been nursing for 17 years, with four years’ midwifery training during a trip to America. She has worked at Dorset County Hospital for two years and previously worked at Bridport hospital for eight years.

She said: “During the labour the mother was unbelievable, the couple were so thankful and bought me a lovely bunch of flowers.

“They also invited me up to the ward to see the new arrival.”