'It's not like delivering a lamb or calf'

The Yorkshire Vet star David Melleney and his wife Megan share the heartwarming story of welcoming their first child

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Although he has delivered hundreds of animal babies, The Yorkshire Vet's David Melleney admits becoming a dad himself has been quite a “learning curve”.

The veterinary surgeon and his wife Megan, 28, became a family of three on May 19 and, as they welcome us into their home in Holmfirth, Yorkshire, it’s clear they’re in a baby bubble.

While viewers of the popular series on 5 have seen David tackle everything from a complicated alpaca birth to sight-saving surgery on a cow, his proudest moment to date, he confessed, was becoming a first-time father to little Lilah Rose Melleney.

“She's been amazing so far,” he beamed, proudly, sitting next to Megan and Lilah, who has an impressive head of baby-soft dark hair.

David and Megan, a dentist, wed at Chateau du Doux, in France’s Dordogne, in September 2023, having met as graduates in 2017. After a year of marriage, they felt they were ready for the next step. They both wanted kids but couldn’t quite believe it when their “efforts” worked so quickly. “It’s still a surprise,” David laughed. “We'd booked a trip to New Zealand in December and January, a mini sabbatical, so our first thought was seeing if we could get scans over there and making sure we weren't doing anything too adventurous.”

Lilah Rose - Rose is the name of Megan's great-grandmother - is the first baby of her generation on the Denny side of the family, so the first grandchild for Megan’s mum and dad, Steve and Della, who live in Essex. The result, David joked, is that they already need an extra wardrobe to store all the tiny clothes and cuddly toys Lilah’s been gifted.

When they discovered they were expecting, Megan’s family were sadly going through a tough time — so, while thrilled, Megan says they were mindful of how they broke the happy news.