Alec Baldwin has hailed his wife a ''hero''.

The '30 Rock' actor paid tribute to spouse Hilaria after she gave birth to their son Rafael yesterday (17.06.15) morning and was impressed with how well she handled labour.

He said: ''Someone else is doing all the hard work and you're there for them ... You sit there and go, I would do anything to make this easier for you, my wife is really, she's my hero, she's tough.''

The 57-year-old actor - who also has 22-month-old toddler Carmen with Hilaria and 19-year-old daughter Ireland with ex-wife Kim Basinger - was by the 31-year-old yoga instructor's side throughout the birth.

He said: ''I'm not gonna get into to graphic detail, but I was on the team.''

Alec hosted the 2015 Fragrance Foundation Awards in New York just hours after his son was born and though being at the birth ''was amazing'', it had been a long process.

He recalled to 'Extra': ''We came into town for her to go to the doctor on Monday.

''I'm doing this play on Long Island, and I'm off on Monday. We come in for her to go to the doctor, I'm gonna drive back out Tuesday to do the show, we go to the doctor, every thing's fine, she goes to dinner with her friends, every thing's fine, (Hilaria) wakes up Tuesday morning, 1:30 in the morning, not feeling good, then 2:30 in the morning feeling really lousy, a lot of pain, bad pain, and she's tough.

''We go to the doctor at 9:30 in the morning, he says come back at two and I'll tell you if it's real, and she's like 'I'm gonna punch this guy, if this isn't for real I don't know what it is for real.' We go back at two and they admitted her and she had the baby at 1:30 this morning.''