SIX newborn babies made for a busy Christmas Day at Dorset County Hospital’s maternity unit.

Staff working at the unit even gave the newborns’ parents a gift of knitted baby clothes for Christmas.

Gemma Harrison, 32, of Fortuneswell, Portland, welcomed baby Sid Townsend at 2.23am on Christmas Day.

She and her fiancé David Townsend were relieved to finally meet Sid, who arrived 11 days after his due date weighing 9lbs 14ozs.

The couple, also parents to Nadie, aged 20 months, praised the hard-working hospital staff.

Gemma said: “I’ve always said if anyone is going to have a baby on Christmas Day it’d be me.

“We’ll make sure that Sid has a half birthday on June 25, to make it easier on Christmas Day. He’ll be a bit like the Queen!”

First-time parents and teachers Rebecca and Alan Greet will be celebrating a belated Christmas at home in Wool with their new-born son.

Rebecca, 29, gave birth to Charlie Frederick Greet, weighing 8lbs 4ozs, at 12.11pm on Christmas Day.

Alan, 31, teaches at St George’s Primary School on Portland whilst Rebecca teaches at Beechcroft St Paul’s Primary School in Weymouth.

Rebecca said: “All the staff working here on Christmas Day were fantastic and made it a really nice day.”

Monic Rose, 25, of Fortuneswell, Portland, had time to open a few Christmas presents and eat some Christmas dinner before giving birth to Adriana Rose.

She and her husband Sean, 27, welcomed their little girl at 7.15pm on Christmas Day.

Adriana is little sister to Malachy, four, and Sean Junior, aged 14 months.

Emma Craft, 18, wasn’t expecting to give birth to Leo until January 11.

She was admitted to Dorset County Hospital with pre-eclampsia and saw her son born at 6.37am on Christmas Day, weighing just 5lbs 3.5ozs.

Leo’s dad David Oinn, 20, said Leo was the ‘nicest Christmas present’ they could have had.

He added: “It hasn’t really sunk in yet. We had a lot of family visit us on Christmas Day in hospital but we’re looking forward to having a proper Christmas dinner together.”

Also celebrating a Christmas Day baby were Emma and Darren Mills of Weymouth, who welcomed baby Elsie into the world.