MASKED thugs burst in to a family’s home, beat a woman with a baseball and slashed her face with a knife... as she was giving birth.

The horrific attack happened while the woman’s partner was upstairs collecting her hospital bag and her two-year-old child was asleep in bed.

Detectives from Basildon CID are still hunting the masked gang after they smashed their way in to the house in Beambridge, Pitsea, with crowbars on Monday night.

The woman’s partner, who does not want to be named, said: “My partner’s contractions were about six minutes apart so I went upstairs to get her hospital bag and to phone the babysitter to come and look after our two-year-old.

“The next thing I heard a loud smash - like a fish tank shattering.

“My partner started screaming my name and I just heard these men shouting something like ‘where’s the money?’, ‘give us the money!’.”

The five-strong gang beat the 22-year-old mother with baseballs bats and crowbars before slashing her across the face with a knife.

Her 32-year-old partner, said: “I came down running down the stairs and they were attacking her. I just threw my arms round her to protect her.

“They carried on beating us.

“I was just shouting back at them, ‘you are wrong man, she is in labour.

“Me and my girlfriend just started screaming and shouting for help.”

The yobs grabbed the couple’s iPad, a Sony Experian mobile phone and £60 cash they had taken out for cabs to the hospital and food.

They then ran off.

She was rushed to Basildon Hospital and suffered a haemorrage but despite her injuries and the trauma, she gave birth to a healthy baby on Tuesday.

Her partner said: “I can’t even describe to you how angry.

“My partner is too traumatised to even go back to our home. She is going to need counselling to help her get through this.

“To do this to a woman who is in labour - it’s sick.”

The gang were five men - three of them wore balaclavas and dark clothes. The fourth gang member was white and the fifth was mixed race.

They were all aged in their twenties and spoke with local accents.

Anyone with information should call Basildon CID on 101.