Quick-thinking dad helps deliver baby daughter on nature strip in the middle of the night

A quick-thinking father has been praised for helping deliver his baby daughter on a nature strip in the middle of the night in Melbourne.

The impromptu birth was not the first for dad Simon Reid after his second child, Lily, also came before the couple was ready.

Violet Reid decided to enter the world two weeks early to the surprise of both her parents.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, mum Sarah Reid started having contractions and the couple jumped in their car to get to the hospital.

One kilometre into the drive they pulled over when things started becoming serious.

“Do we keep going, or do we pull over, then my body told me, we pull over,” Ms Reid said.

It only took eight minutes until baby Violet was born on the nature strip in Preston.