A black father claims he was racially insulted by a midwife during the birth of his son.

The offended father has received “sincere apologies” in letters from Worthing Hospital, but is demanding that trust bosses take further action.

The Jamaican-born man, who does not want to be named, said that remarks allegedly made by a midwife ruined what should have been a special moment.

The father-of-three told The Argus that midwife Wendy Martin had asked if he was drinking “jungle juice” and claimed she commented about women “in his country” popping babies out in bushes.

He said: “My son's birth should be a nice memory and instead it will always remind me of this.”

“I think it's appalling.

“Even if she is prejudiced she shouldn't bring that to work.

“You would think someone could be nice for a few hours and let this little guy come into the world.

“I feel like she's tainted him before he's even been born, with her racist views.”

The alleged incident happened in August last year.

After the couple had been in the delivery unit at Worthing hospital for several hours the father’s sister brought him an energy drink. He claims that Ms Martin asked him if he was “getting drunk already”.

The teetotal father then claimed she said “jungle juice, jungle juice” four or five times.

He said that Ms Martin went on to make comments of a racial nature.

He added: “The next thing she says to me is 'I don't know how these women in your country do it.

“‘They're out there working in the bushes and they just pop the babies out, tie them on their backs and keep on going’.”

The father, who is from Lancing, works as a security guard and has lived in Sussex for 10 years and in Britain since he was a child.

He said: “I have had three children born here and a British passport and a British citizenship certificate,” he said.

“This is where I come from and I have never seen anyone in this country in the bushes pushing out babies.”

“Working as a store detective I get a lot of people who are abusive to me, but you expect that because I’ve just stopped them from thieving.

“If this woman had said that to me in a pub, I would’ve told her she’d had too much to drink and sent her home.

“I can take that sort of abuse, and take it in my stride, but what that woman did was completely different.

“She insulted my family and my unborn baby.

“My missus was in labour at the time, but speaking to her afterwards she can remember it pretty well.”

Since the birth of his son the distressed father has written repeatedly to Worthing and Southlands NHS Trust but says he is dissatisfied with their apologies and assurances that Ms Martin will be given “equality and diversity training”.

The family have received letters of apology from the hospital head of midwifery Emma Luhr and hospital chief executive Steven Cass.

One of the trusts’s letters said: “Ms Martin was very open to learning about your concerns and offered her sincere apologies that her comments caused offence.”

A spokeswoman for Sussex Police confirmed that officers had been informed of the incident this week and would be investigating it as a potential hate crime.

A spokeswoman for Worthing and Southlands Hospital NHS Trust said she would not comment until the formal complaint had been resolved.

The Argus contacted Ms Martin through the trust to offer the chance to comment but she declined.