A premature baby girl who was born weighing less than one pound is finally leaving hospital.

 

Little Poppy Wicks was born by emergency C-section on March 9 weighing 12.7oz. Hospital staff told her parents that she is the seventh smallest surviving premature baby in the world.

 

Poppy was delivered early at 25 weeks because she was suffering from a condition known as intrauterine growth restriction. The condition prevents the baby from growing at a normal rate inside the womb.

 

Mum Hannah Wicks said: "Initially our consultant thought it was a syndrome which was ‘incompatible with life'.

 

"All along we were told, ‘She’s not going to be alive at the next scan’.

 

“I used to pat my belly and talk to her, telling her “come on, keep going”.

 

 

Hannah told The Mirror: “When they said they had to deliver, I burst into tears. That’s when it hit me, ‘She’s either going to make it or not’.

 

Hannah and Poppy's dad Steve McSween were told Poppy might not survive and they had picked out a burial plot and a cuddly rabbit to bury with her in the event of her death. They even had to explain to her older brother Oliver, five, that she might not live.

 

Poppy was so tiny that doctors faced extraordinary challenges when treating her. After her birth, she developed sepsis and stopped breathing and medics needed to alter live-saving equipment to fit her tiny frame.

 

She was placed on a ventilator inside an incubator and her parents were not allowed to hold her for three weeks.

 

Hannah described the incredible moment she finally got to hold her tiny daughter, saying: “It was amazing. I sat there for what felt like a lifetime, just looking at her, longing to hold her.

 

 

“To be able to properly cuddle her was unbelievable. We feel incredibly, incredibly lucky”.

 

Dad Steve they “never gave up” on Poppy, despite the diagnosis of intrauterine growth restriction.“We weren’t going to give up on her," said.

 

“We had stopped buying clothes and preparing for the birth. But we never gave up hope”.

 

19-week-old Poppy is now going home to be with her parents and Oliver, in Severn Beach, Gloucester.

 

The little girl still needs an oxygen aid but doctors believe she will soon be able to breathe on her own.

 

Hannah and Steve are now planning their wedding which they delayed in April because of Poppy’s condition.

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