For Sarah Miller and Andrew Gilbert, this New Year's eve brought more reason to celebrate than most.

Sarah gave birth to little Thomas just after midnight He was one of the first two babies to enter the world this year born at exactly the same time, 45 minutes after the stroke of midnight yesterday.

Thomas, who weighed 7lb 8oz, was born to Sarah Miller and Andrew Gilbert at 12.45am at St Richard's Hospital in Chichester.

Sarah, 22, from Ashington, was due to give birth on Christmas Eve and had been looking forward to spending the festive period with her new baby.

She said: "I wanted to have the baby before Christmas so I could relax a bit but I just had to wait. Now I am really pleased he has been born this year. It's a very good birthday to have because it's so easy to remember."

Samantha Horley and Peter Hart are the thrilled new parents of little Zoe, weighing 8lb 7oz, who was also born at 12.45am at the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath.

It was a busy night for maternity staff at the Mid Sussex hospital as there were two other births. Molly, weighing 8lb 5oz, was born to Deborah Finch and Chris Angell at 1.07am and Amanda and Steven Barden toasted the birth of Holly, weighing 9lb 6oz, at 2.50am.

In Hove, Xavier and Roberta Young celebrated the birth of their son who was born by home delivery at 5.16am, weighing 8lb 6oz.

They decided to wait to discover what the character of their second child is like before choosing a name.

Parents Joanne and Lee Gregory were thrilled with their new arrival, Ollie, at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton at 9.20am, weighing 8lb 10oz.

At Worthing Hospital, Holly was born to parents Lynne and Neil Stoner at 7.11am, weighing 7lb 2oz and Olivia was born to Tracey and Darren Miles at 9.02am weighing 7lb 1oz.

At Eastbourne District General Hospital, Poppy was born to Anita and Michael Keville at 3.05am, weighing 8lb 8oz. Venus was born at 7.07am, weighing 6lb 5oz, to Zohra and Fatshad Moshref.