Although he has delivered hundreds of animal babies over the years, The Yorkshire Vet’s David Melleney admits that becoming a father himself has been quite a “learning curve”. The experienced veterinary surgeon and his wife Megan, 28, became a family of three on 19 May, and, as they welcome OK! into their rural home in Holmfirth, Yorkshire, it’s clear they are in a happy baby bubble.
While viewers of the popular Channel 5 series have seen David tackle everything from a complicated alpaca birth to sight-saving surgery on a cow, his proudest moment to date, he confesses, was becoming a first-time dad to little Lilah Rose Melleney. “She’s been amazing so far,” he beams, sitting next to wife Megan and Lilah, who has an impressive head of baby-soft dark hair. “She’s been sleeping and eating, but we’ve been warned that everything can change.”
David and Megan, a dentist, married in a stunning ceremony at Chateau du Doux, in France’s Dordogne, in September 2023, having met as graduates in 2017. After enjoying a year of being husband and wife (and dog-parents to rescue pup Yogi), they decided they were ready for the next big step.
They both knew they wanted children but couldn’t quite believe it when their ‘efforts’ worked so quickly. “It’s still a surprise,” David laughs. “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.” “No romantic vineyards or overnight stays in the RV,” Megan adds, grinning.
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 jokes, 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. “I’d lost both my grandmas in the space of a month, and the day we found out was the day we were clearing out Nan’s stuff from her house. My period was late, but I thought it might have been stress, so I did a test to check. It was a surreal and very emotional day.
“We decided to wait a couple of weeks to tell people, including Mum and Dad. My mum and my nan were really close so I just didn’t think it was the right time. When we did tell them, everyone was overjoyed. I have one younger brother and we were pretty close to our cousins growing up, so the house was always full. I always knew I wanted to be a mum. No one in my generation has yet had a baby, so Lilah is already very spoiled.”
As Megan sits with a sleeping Lilah in her arms, she seems to be taking new motherhood in her stride – and has even managed to bake in between naps. She’s especially grateful, she jokes, that given Lilah’s head of hair and the old wives’ tale about it causing heartburn, she got away so lightly. “I didn’t have any reflux and that was a big surprise when we saw the head of hair on her. I’ve been really lucky so far, she’s been an angel baby.”
Despite his veterinary knowledge, David admits he had some big gaps as far as human anatomy and babies were concerned – and he says attending local antenatal classes was eye-opening.
“She gave us some diagrams showing stages of labour and something didn’t look quite right to me on one of the fluid and birth sacs. I mentioned it, she scratched her head and realised I was right. She said she’d had the picture for 12 years and no one had ever pointed it out before. That said, it was a learning curve for me. Humans are very different to animals.”
The couple wanted to find out the baby’s gender and planned to have their 20-week scan while in New Zealand. But despite trying to organise ahead of time, they weren’t able to get an appointment. Instead, they spent their time choosing their top boys’ names, Megan laughs, because “we were both adamant it was a boy”. “We had our top three sorted, no girls’ names at all, so when we came home and had the scan, it was a huge shock.”
They went on to plan some very special baby reveal gestures. David’s Yorkshire Vet colleague Matt Jackson-Smith and his wife Katherine received some pink cupcakes, and excited aunties and other relatives received flower bouquets with pink ribbons.
Megan says she remained largely worry-free during her pregnancy, and only stopped working when her bump made it “difficult to bend over and use my arms”. David, however, had a few extra concerns –because of his job.
“We had a busy lambing season this year so I was getting nervous because I’d be driving to a farm or stables about 40 minutes or an hour away. I changed the ringtone on my phone for Megan’s calls so if it rang I knew I had to scramble to answer it.
“We always follow lots of cleaning and biosecurity protocols, but I also had to be extra cautious for the past nine months, especially when I’ve been out on farms. Pregnant women are always warned about sheep and lambs because there’s a real risk from diseases that some farm animals can carry, and one risk is miscarriage.
“So I’d go out on an emergency call at midnight, then come back to bed for a few hours – but I made sure I’d fully changed and showered, and maybe would sleep in the spare room. The risk was just too great to take chances.”
When the big day arrived – a week later than the official due date – the pair were ready. Megan avoided planning, she says, beyond “getting the pain relief – all the good stuff!”, and as it turns out, there wasn’t much time, anyway.
“We were meant to go in for an induction on the Sunday, but there were no beds so I just went in for monitoring and then came home again. I was told there would probably be a bed the next day. But at about 3am the contractions started, and by morning rush hour they were coming three within 10 minutes so we drove an hour to the hospital.”
After being examined, Megan and David were sent home and told to come back once the labour had progressed, probably the next day. But Megan’s pain intensified and by the second rush hour of the day they were on their way to the hospital again. In Megan’s car, she says, because she didn’t want to risk having her baby en route and David’s vet equipment being in close proximity!
“The midwives were very relaxed because they’d checked Megan that morning, but I was saying, ‘I really think you need to check her now,’” David recalls. “They talked about running a bath and then checking her, but I just knew it was happening. When they did, it was suddenly, ‘We think she’s coming soon.’ They got the birthing pool ready and Lilah was born about an hour and a half after we got to the hospital.”
Another midwife on the ward turned out to be an old school friend of another of The Yorkshire Vet team, Shona Searson, and she allowed David to play a special role in Lilah’s birth. “She let me sweep Lilah out of the water, which was pretty cool,” he says. I was nervous though. It’s not like delivering a lamb or calf.”
Megan gets emotional talking about how David advocated so well on her and their baby’s behalf, insisting they return to hospital. “I don’t think I’ve ever loved him more than when he insisted they check me – as then I could have pain relief.”
Her standout memory from that day was when David stroked her back with one hand, preparing to scoop Lilah out of the water with the other. “It was a surreal 30 seconds,” she says, tearing up. “I had just one more contraction, then he brought Lilah out. I was a little shocked afterwards and shaky, but there was a lovely moment where the midwife took some photographs of us and I’m so glad she did – looking back on them makes my heart explode.”
They spent one night in hospital before returning home as a family of three, to a waiting charcuterie board and a bottle of wine lovingly prepared by David’s brother Peter and his parents Paul and Vicky. “So I had a glass of wine and cried as I ate Parma ham, because that’s how emotional you are when you get out of hospital,” Megan says.
One important first job was introducing Lilah to another Yorkshire Vet regular, the couple’s rescue dog, Yogi. They prepared long before the birth, setting boundaries in the house and making sure Yogi had a space of his own. Megan also took him on walks with an empty pram. On the day itself, Yogi went on a long, tiring walk with Paul and Vicky while Megan, David and Lilah settled in at home.
“We were conscious about it because the reason Yogi was rehomed was social anxiety and jealousy of other dogs,” David explains. “We put in a lot of preparation. I don’t think he understood what was happening at first, but now he wants to sniff and lick her. We’re just taking it very slowly.”
Lilah will also make her TV debut at some point as David and Megan introduce their new addition to The Yorkshire Vet viewers. One thing they didn’t wait for was getting Lilah her own passport so they can start travelling together – and she’s already on the guest list for a wedding in Italy.
“We applied for her passport on the same day we got her birth certificate,” David says. “I’m a groomsman at my good friend Riccardo and his fiancée Sonia’s wedding next month so as long as it arrives in time, we’ll all be going. No rest for the wicked. We can’t wait!”