I’ll be home soon, Mum!
Weighing only 1lb 6oz, tiny Daisy defies odds after her arrival four months early
BORN after only 23 weeks and four days in the womb, Daisy Sherwood was so tiny she could have fitted in her mother’s palm.
her parents were prepared for the worst after her early arrival, but the baby has defied the odds to be one of Britain’s tiniest survivors.
Yesterday her mother Cara Onken, 23, and father Simon Sherwood, 32, called her a ‘miracle’ as they told of Daisy’s dramatic arrival four months prematurely.
Banking consultant Miss Onken said she had a ‘fairly normal’ pregnancy with first child Daisy until she started bleeding at their home in Ramsgate, Kent, last month.
Mr Sherwood, a waiter, drove her to the maternity ward at their local hospital in Margate at 4am. Neither of them had realised, but doctors swiftly found she had gone into labour. Miss Onken said: ‘They explained that if Daisy was delivered there, it was only a 10 per cent chance of her surviving.
‘if we got to the William harvey hospital in Ashford, there was a 40 per cent chance of survival as they have a neo-natal intensive care unit – but if she arrived in the ambulance... the chances were probably nil.’
She explained: ‘Once we got to Ashford... my contractions started again – it was like Daisy knew she could come out now.’
Daisy was born at 6.45pm on July 18, weighing 1lb 6oz and measuring 11in. She has since remained in Ashford’s neo-natal intensive care unit, where she breathes via a ventilator and is fed by tubes. She still weighs only 1lb 13oz.
Miss Onken said: ‘The consultant said the first 48 hours were the most critical. Five days after she was born, they let us have our first quick cuddle...we cried.’
Since Daisy’s birth, the couple have stayed at a relative’s home, which is only eight minutes’ drive from the hospital. Miss Onken said: ‘every time we put a hand in the incubator she squeezes a finger and opens her eyes. it’s like she knows us and is saying, “Just give me a little bit longer and i’ll be coming home with you”. Daisy has been a miracle since day one.’
A foetus is considered ‘viable’ at 24 weeks. Baby charity Bliss says very few live births occur before this, and mortality rates for the few babies born this early are extremely high.
Mr Sherwood said: ‘Daisy has never given up – she is such a little fighter.’ She will stay in hospital until what was Miss Onken’s due day – November 6 – by when it is hoped Daisy will weigh at least 4lb or 5lb.