Dozens of mothers and fathers in the Black Country were given the very best present possible, as they welcomed their own Christmas Day bundles of joy.

Walsall Manor Hospital had a bumper crop of December 25 babies, with six arriving before midday.

The first festive baby made her appearance at 12.32am. Penny Rose was born to parents Clare, aged 26, and Richard Selvey, of Pelsall. Penny, who weighed 8lb, had been due on December 16.

Jane Marsters, 28, of Kilvert Road, Wednesbury, and her partner Keith Askey welcomed little Jayden into the world at 4.41am, weighing 7lb 6oz.

At Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley, proud parents Mandi and Jatinder Chatha, 26 and 28, welcomed their first daughter at 2.56am. The baby, yet to be given a name, weighed in at 6lb and the couple, who live in Swindon, near Kinver, said they were “over the moon”.”

Shelley Cartwright, 30, was in familiar surroundings as she gave birth to son Ewan – as she is a staff nurse at the hospital. Born at 4.24pm he is her and her partner David Westwood’s first child.

Miss Cartwright, from Cradley Heath, who works on the coronary care unit, said: “It was the first Christmas where I haven’t been working – but I’ve ended up at the hospital anyway.”

There was double the reason to celebrate for her fellow staff nurse Kate Donnelly, 26, who gave birth to identical twin boys, Max and Tom, on Christmas Eve. The pair weighed in 6lb 2oz and 5lb 2oz.

Their father Karl, a 28-year-old Dudley firefighter of The Straits, Gornal, said: “We are proud and it’s nice that they were born on Christmas Eve.”