A BOLTON midwife delivered her sister's baby boy at home and then faced a desperate battle to save her life as she waited for an ambulance.

Royal Bolton Hospital midwife Sharon Green helped her sister to give birth on the bathroom floor and then fought to save her when she lost consciousness after she started losing blood.

The drama began after Sharon dashed to her sister Lisa Booth's Walkden home when she received a frantic call from her.

Sharon delivered the bouncing baby boy -- her nephew -- within minutes of arriving at the house and then had to use her medical skills on her sister when complications set in.

Lisa started to haemorrhage after giving birth and then lost consciousness.

Sharon, from Farnworth, raised the alarm and then treated her sister on the floor before she helped ambulance paramedics to give her oxygen. Lisa was then taken to hospital where she was detained for two days before being allowed home after treatment.

And today -- as the new mother was recovering at home -- she praised the actions of her sister declaring her a "life-saver".

The drama began when Lisa -- who was 39 weeks pregnant -- phoned her sister for advice after suffering bad stomach pains.

But when Sharon arrived at the house in Farndale Square, 33-year-old Lisa could already feel the baby's head and it was too late to take her to hospital.

Sharon, aged 40, delivered a healthy baby boy, Daniel Ethan, weighing 7lbs 6 ozs.

But moments after the birth, Lisa, who had enjoyed an easy first pregnancy until that point, started to haemorrhage and lost consciousness.

Paramedics helped Sharon treat her sister with oxygen before she was rushed into the Princess Anne Maternity Unit.

Lisa, whose husband Glen was working in Gloucester at the time of the birth, is full of praise for her big sister.

She said: "Sharon thought of me as a patient and not as her sister and remained calm and collected.

"She said that if she had arrived just half an hour later I would have been dead because of the huge amount of blood I lost.

"It was just lucky that after I phoned her I opened the front door before I went back upstairs and collapsed on the bathroom floor because otherwise she wouldn't have been able to get into the house and help me."

Senior Midwife at the Royal Bolton Hospital, Chris Sharpe, said: "Sharon did an excellent job and we're all very proud of her.

"Haemorrhaging is potentially life threatening and it must have been very frightening for Sharon to deal with a patient in that state, let alone her sister.

"She thought quickly, called an ambulance and together with paramedics set-up an intravenous transfusion before her sister was brought into hospital."

Lisa, who is a senior accounts assistant, is now resting at home and doting on baby Daniel.