Baby given 1 per cent chance of survival going from strength to strength

A mother has shared how her baby boy is thriving after she rejected pressure from doctors to abort him.

Ann Rice’s waters broke just 20 weeks into her pregnancy, and doctors told her she would likely miscarry naturally within 48 hours.

But when the miscarriage didn’t occur, the medics told the mother of two she should abort her child as there was a risk she could contract sepsis.

24 weeks

But Ann and husband Chris chose to continue with the pregnancy, and 10 weeks later, in December last year, their son Chester was born by emergency C-section weighing just 1lb 8oz.

The wait was difficult for them, but they were relieved once they passed the 24 week mark – the point at which a pregnancy is deemed ‘viable’, and also the abortion limit in the UK.

Ann said: “If he was born before that, the doctors wouldn’t have intervened to save his life if he needed it.”

Early struggles

The tiny baby was born with underdeveloped lungs and had to spend the first four months of his life in a neonatal intensive care unit fighting for his life.

Ann said: “In those four months, he had sepsis four times, he had a blood transfusion, he almost had to have surgery for a perforated bowel – but luckily that fixed itself.

“We were able to bring him home in April – but just two weeks later he caught bronchiolitis which developed into four other respiratory viruses, so he had to go back to the ICU. He was in there for four days in a critical condition. It felt like one step forward, two steps back, all the time.”

Despite his tough start to life, baby Chester now weighs 16lbs 14oz at nine months old and is getting stronger every day.