'My baby wasn't breathing and my wife was bleeding to death'

It's a moment that Gary Edwards remembers 'vividly' - it haunted him for months.

His wife Elise had just given birth to their first born child. It should be a memory that fills him with joy.

But baby Bryn wasn't breathing and Elise had a haemorrhage following the forceps delivery. "I was in the middle of the room with my baby being resuscitated and my wife bleeding to death," he recalls. "And all I could hear the nurses say is 'I can't stop the bleeding'."

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After spending his first days in an intensive care unit, Bryn 'bounced back' and was discharged from St Mary's Hospital with his mum, who had to have surgery, just over a week later. But despite the relief of having them both at home after eight days in hospital which saw Elise develop sepsis, Gary, a counsellor who works in suicide prevention, was traumatised. Six days later he was due back at work.

"I couldn't sleep, I couldn't rest," he says. "I was hyper-vigilant, listening out for who's going to drop dead or have to go to hospital."

As well as having to support Elise during her recovery and look after their new born, he suffered from trauma symptoms for months. Gary's employer, a small charity, gave him an extra week of 'compassionate leave' after his two weeks of paternity leave had finished.

But having just been paid the statutory rate of paternity leave, which remains at around £180 a week, he could not afford to stay off work. Gary, 41, who lives with his young family in Levenshulme, is one of many dads across the UK who are now calling for change.

"You're tired from the birth itself," he says. "Even though you're not doing it, you're there witnessing it all. Work was very good