‘Miracle’ baby girl defies doctors expectations

BORN just a few inches longer than a biro, this is little Aaliyah Hart — one of Britain’s smallest babies.

Hailed by her mother as a "miracle", Aaliyah's survival has defied doctors' expectations.

Aaliyah was born in City Hospital, Birmingham, 12 weeks prematurely and weighing 12oz small enough for her mother Lorraine to hold her in the palm of her hand.

The baby who, at nine inches long when she was born on May 27, will have to remain in hospital for the next three months until she can feed independently.

Speaking to reporters at the hospital Mrs Hart, a 37-year-old social worker, said she could not believe her first child had survived after doctors warned that Aaliyah had only a 10% chance of pulling through.

Describing the moment she gave birth, Mrs Hart told reporters: "I literally just cried and cried. I could not believe that something so small could survive. She was so tiny but she was so active. Her hands were going, she was her own little person and I cried for a long time. She was surviving, that was my main concern."

Mrs Hart, who lives in Highgate, Birmingham, said she had been trying for a baby for 15 years without success. During the pregnancy,

doctors warned the baby was smaller than she should be and that she might not survive beyond birth.

But Mrs Hart and her husband Ricardo, 30, were determined to continue with the pregnancy

despite the gloomy predictions. Dr Jeff Bissenden said: "I have been a consultant paediatrician since 1980 and I've never seen a

baby that size survive. Usually they are miscarriages, but she (Mrs Hart) pushed out this little girl who wriggled around, waved her legs and said 'I want to live'."

Dr Bissenden said hospital staff were amazed that Aaliyah, who is in an incubator for the time being, came off a life support machine just two days after her birth. According to the University of Iowa's register of tiny surviving

babies, Britain's smallest was a 10oz baby girl born in 1938, who went on to live until she was 44.

Before Aaliyah's birth, the smallest living survivor was Dylan Coles, who weighted 15oz when he was born in Liverpool in December 2001.