A MUM-to-be who went to the lavatory and gave birth while on the loo, is looking forward to the first Christmas with her miracle baby.

Vicky Thiboutot was at Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral on May 31 this year as she had started to encounter complications after just 22 weeks of pregnancy.

She frantically rang the bell for medical assistance and doctors and nurses came rushing to help the baby, later named Hope.

Still attached to the umbilical cord, the baby was able to ‘breathe’ and was rushed to the intensive care unit weighing just 1lb 2oz.

Hope, later described by doctors as ‘feisty’, 

spent 11 weeks at Arrowe Park before transferring to the Countess of Chester Hospital until November 2, when she was discharged. She now weighs 8lbs 13ozs.

Now proud parents Vicky, 42, and her partner Anthony, 37, from Broughton, are looking forward to their first Christmas together as a family.

Vicky, who was born in Canada, said: “Looking back now the experience of Hope’s birth seems so surreal and I feel like I was living in a nightmare for the first two weeks after her birth. 

“I just had to live one day at a time, some days when she was really poorly we took it hour by hour.

“We know that Hope will be at risk of infection until she is two but we can cope with that. We know she is a little fighter and we can’t wait to enjoy our first Christmas with her.”

Telling her story for the first time, Vicky said she had started to bleed at 22 weeks and her placenta was positioned very low so she was admitted to the Countess for five days. She went home but started bleeding again a few days later and her waters were leaking.

She was sent to Arrowe Park feeling ‘very anxious’ and was being monitored regularly over the weekend until Sunday, May 31.

Vicky said: “I felt as though I was really constipated and when I went to the toilet to my disbelief I saw a tiny baby in the toilet bowl and found I had given birth to my baby in the toilet. I was screaming and ringing the bell for help and when the doctors and nurses came they seemed as shocked as I was.

“I had to try and stay calm whilst they checked if she was still alive, although I felt anything but calm at that point. 

“I named our baby Hope as at that point I had no idea whether she was going to survive or not. I was told later that the umbilical cord saved her life as she was still attached to me so she was getting oxygen.”

Doctors later described Hope as ‘really feisty’ as she was always trying to pull the wires off her monitor.

Vicky added: “She was in intensive care for 31 days and wired up to every machine you could imagine. I wasn’t able to hold her for a month which was really difficult and upsetting and when I did hold her she felt like a jellyfish.”

Hope was transferred to the Countess after 11 weeks where she was cared for until she was discharged last month.

Vicky, who is supporting the Babygrow Appeal, said: “The staff at the Countess were just amazing, I have no words to express how grateful myself and Anthony are.”