I’m sure readers would like to join the Voice team in sending our congratulations to Lib Dem MP, home office minister and regular LDV contributor Jeremy Browne and his partner Rachel Binks on the birth of their baby, Molly (not least because it’s an opportunity to use that photo).

However, while mother, baby and indeed father are all now fine, Jeremy and Rachel went through an experience that no new parents would wish to. This Is West Country reports:

Taunton Deane MP Jeremy Browne and his partner Rachel Binks feared losing their newborn baby during a rollercoaster week.

Their joy at Molly’s birth turned to despair within hours when experts diagnosed a life-threatening condition needing emergency surgery.

They wept after the bombshell at Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton and feared the worst at hospital in Bristol.

But tears turned to relief when another consultant said the diagnosis was incorrect and Molly was fine.

Mr Browne said: “We were plunged into this awful world and then pulled out again.”

There was no hint of drama following Molly’s delivery at Musgrove last Tuesday (March 26).

“On Wednesday, she was coughing phlegm, but they said that was normal,” added the Home Office minister.

“Then later the doctor said he had concerns and wanted to examine Molly in the intensive care section.

“X-rays showed her oesophagus – [connecting the throat and stomach] – was incomplete and her food-pipe might be connected to her windpipe.

“She needed complicated life-saving surgery and her survival was unsure.”

However, after arriving at Bristol more tests were carried out, and the initial concerns fortunately turned out to be wrong, as Jeremy explained:

She’d been in a unit for the South-West’s most intensively sick children. When we left it felt like she was the only survivor walking away from a plane crash.

The most memorable day of my life should have been Tuesday (Molly’s birth) – yet it was only the third most memorable day of last week after Wednesday, when we were told she needed life-saving surgery, and Thursday, when we found she was healthy.

* Nick Thornsby is a day editor at Lib Dem Voice.