SO CRUEL
I was just 17 when I gave birth to the UK’s smallest baby – but cruel trolls said she would probably die
A TEENAGE mum who birth to the UK’s smallest baby has revealed how cruel trolls tormented her - saying the youngster didn't even look human when she was born.
Ellie Paton’s baby Hannah Stibbles weighed just 325g (11oz) when born premature, arriving three-and-a-half months before her due date.
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Ellie, now 18 but 17 when her tot arrived, was warned tiny Hannah might not survive and she was given a 20 per cent chance of pulling through.
Happily she is still here and ";chunky", she told the .
But she also revealed to the newspaper that after Hannah was born she had been subject to unkind comments in an online group.
Her mum told the paper: "It was terrifying, we really thought that she wasn’t going to make it, then we found out about a group chat with girls talking nasty about Hannah when she was just born as well, it really brought our spirits down.
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";[They said] loads of nasty things" about Hannah, before she was even a week old.
"The girls in a group chat were saying she doesn’t even look like a baby, she’s probably going to die doesn’t even look alive, loads of nasty things."
Tiny Hannah was born on December 30 last year, by emergency C-section at 25 weeks.
Despite her very rocky start, Hannah was strong enough to breathe by herself and happily has slowly grown stronger and stronger and put on weight.
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Ellie and partner Brandon Stibbles, 21, from Newmilns, Ayrshire, Scotland, said Hannah is “the best thing to ever happen to them”.
The couple were warned at a 22-week scan that their baby was the size of a 16-week foetus.
Ellie was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia - high blood pressure during pregnancy that, left untreated, can cause premature birth or mean the baby doesn't grow as expected in the womb.
The only way to cure the condition is to deliver the baby. Normally this is at full term, but it may be earlier in severe cases.
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Ellie said her complicated pregnancy was “scary all the time” - with no date for a C-section pencilled in as one could be needed at any time.
Before Hannah's birth, Ellie was treated in hospital for two days because her blood pressure was too high.
She was sent home but the next morning, on December 29, Ellie woke up with excruciating stomach and chest pains and was rushed to Crosshouse Hospital around 11am.
She was sent to The Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH), in Glasgow, around 7pm.
Hannah was born by emergency C-section just after 1am on December 30 and is thought to be the smallest baby to survive in the UK in the past 19 years.
The UK's smallest baby before Hannah was Aaliyah Hart who was born weighing 12oz (340g) in 2003 and is now 19.
Brandon, a labourer, talking in January said: "The high up doctors were coming into the neonatal unit and saying 'babies this size just don't survive'.
“We were told she had a 20 per cent chance of survival, that she could need resuscitating, or be stillborn but when she came out she was breathing, she's practically breathing on her own.
"We are loving it. It's the best thing that's ever happened to us.
"Ellie got to hold her and I got to change her nappy - when I took my hand away from changing her nappy, she grabbed it.”
After Hannah was born she was given bubble wrap to keep her warm as it is lighter than a blanket.
Brandon said: "She has bubble wrap on her, it keeps the heat in but she tends to kick it away.
"Everybody says she's very sassy, she's very active.”
Amazingly, Ellie’s mum, Stacey Miller, 36, gave birth to her third child, Abbie-Beth Miller, 28 weeks early last year.
Stacey - Hannah’s gran - has been a massive support to the young couple.
Brandon said: "Ellie's mum went through the exact same thing. We are both just really eager to be back in our own environment.
"I would never have done it any way differently either."
Ellie and Brandon praised medics at the maternity unit in the QEUH.
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Brandon said: "All the people who we have dealt with since Ellie went into the maternity ward have been absolutely brilliant.
"Our whole life has just changed."
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