A baby girl born after spending just over 23 weeks in the womb has been confirmed as the UK’s most premature baby.
Little Edie Madoc-Jones weighed just 1lb 4oz at birth.
She was the size of her mum’s hand and her skin was translucent.
In her first two weeks out of the womb she suffered a bleed on the brain, lung disease, collapsed lungs, pneumonia, sepsis, a low platelet and haemoglobin count, and a hole in her heart.
Medics told her parents Nicola and David, 38 and 37, respectively, that they may need to eventually switch off her life support.
But Edie fought back, and is now a healthy two-year-old.
She is still smaller than most kids her age, and wears clothes for children aged just 12 months.
It emerged last week that the tot - who was born at 23 weeks and four days - spent just a single day in the womb more than the world’s most premature baby.
That honour has gone to a girl named Saybie from San Diego, California, The Sun reported.
Nicola, a civil servant said: “I know the strength that is needed to be that baby’s mum and to fight tooth and nail for them to survive.
“I was told by medics my baby was not ‘viable’ but Edie is proof that the most tiny of babies can live a happy, healthy life.
“When Edie was born it was the most frightening time of my life and I know exactly how Saybie’s parents must be feeling.”
Nicola, from Cardiff, had a normal pregnancy with no complications until a small bleed at 23 weeks.
The hospital told her to come in but she said she was quite relaxed.
“I remember the midwife said: ‘Everything is normal, but you’re dilating.’ That was the beginning of hell," she said.
Doctors tried to get Edie over the 24 week mark — deemed the minimum for life - but Nicola had to be rushed into a delivery suite and gave birth soon after.
Baby Edie was born at 8.08am weighing 580 grams (1.2lb) just 23 weeks and four days into Nicola’s pregnancy.
Nicola added: “We only got to see Edie for a few seconds before she was taken away.
“We were terrified to look but we couldn’t not. She was tiny, her eyes were still fused shut, her skin was translucent, and she was terribly bruised from the delivery.
“They told us that she was extremely weak and that her odds weren’t good.
“But just as she went her leg moved. Among all the shock of the last few days, the horror of the delivery, and then the tragedy that we were now expecting to unfold that gave me the tiniest bit of hope.”
Medics had few guidelines to follow due to the extreme and rare nature of Edie's case.
She was but placed Edie in an incubator and a protective plastic bag.
She started improving and had emergency eye surgery. After 109 days Edie was able to be taken home.
Her parents are hoping to get her in the Guinness World Records.
