Macey Micklethwaite was barely bigger than her father’s hand. She was born by C-section at St Michael’s hospital in Bristol, after Karen was diagnosed with severe pre-eclampsia after her 25 weeks scan. She waited 551g. Just weeks above, her father had gone through a horrific motorbike crash and was lucky to be alive making this moment. Karen Dawkins has been warned that her baby wouldn’t survive, but she did by god’s grace.

“When she was born she the size of my hand” she said. ‘I look back at photos and think how un-baby-like she looks, but at the time I thought ‘wow, what a baby’. ‘She battled through so much. I feel so lucky to have her.’ Karen did not see her child for the first two days, in which time Macey’s weight dropped to 478g. she get to look her photos of that days that Rhys took. But with the help of hospital staff Macey began to recover well and after 5 months was allowed to go home.

Macey is now 8 month s old and she weighs 3.9 kg and looks very fine and healthy. Karen said: ‘She got a number of infections and illnesses. She had part of her bowel removed. Her feeding was a problem. ‘Fortunately only things that were fixable went wrong. ‘She is just a normal baby. She is small but catching others up. Health and development wise she is on track. ‘It’s amazing how much she has battled through.’

Throughout the time in hospital, Karen was supported by the charity Cots for Tots, which raises funds for life-saving equipment for premature infants and provides free accommodation to parents and siblings of babies at St Michael’s.

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