Nine-year-old Alyssa Meza delivers her own baby sister

Alyssa managed to remove the umbilical cord wrapped around the child's neck after seeing a similar incident on a medical TV show

Nine-year-old Alyssa Meza successfully delivered her baby sister, who was born with the umbilical cord around her neck (ABC Eyewitness News )

A nine-year-old girl successfully delivered her baby sister when her mother went into labour early, despite the child being born with the umbilical cord wrapped around its neck.

Alyssa Meza said she told her mother to “push the baby out and I'll catch the baby”, when Monique Meza started to go into labour at their home in Chicago.

Alyssa said: “She got scared, and I caught the baby, grabbed the towel and wrapped her around.”

Alyssa said she had watched a medical television programme in the past where a child had been born with a cord around its neck, which gave her an idea of what to do. “The umbilical cord was actually around the baby. It was like two around. So I had to unwrap it a little and I ran next door to grab my neighbour because the baby was a little purple,” she explained.

The neighbour alerted emergency services who took Ms Meza and her baby to hospital.

Ms Meza told WLS-TV she was very proud of her daughter. "I expected it from her, but not as much maturity that she has shown me, at her age, very mature," she said.

Both mother and baby were discharged from hospital on New Year's Day.