Miracle baby born FOUR months premature weighing just 1lb celebrates her first birthday

Put on oxygen in an incubator, she clung on to life while doctors warned her worried parents she might not survive.

But now Janice Snalam, 39, and partner Michael Glover, 41, are preparing to celebrate the birthday they feared their daughter would never see.

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Despite the odds, she now weighs a healthy 15lb 3oz and will be one-year-old tomorrow.

Miss Snalam and her partner, a delivery driver, were told that Charlie Jo could die because she was so premature her lungs were not properly formed.

Her parents, who have been together for ten years and have another daughter Holly, four, were also told their baby had a 50 per cent chance of being physically or mentally disabled.

But after a battery of tests, she has finally been given the all-clear. Miss Snalam said: "Charlie Jo's fantastic. She's got two teeth, she's eating off a spoon and she's sitting up on her own.

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"She's had her eyes and her ears checked, she's absolutely perfect. Charlie Jo's first birthday is such a milestone for us. She was so very poorly when she was born, we didn't think she would survive.

"But she's such a little fighter. We feel so lucky to have both of our children."

Full-time mother Janice, who suffers from polycystic ovarian syndrome, took medication to increase ovulation before finally falling pregnant with the couple's first child Holly.

The couple, from Hindley in Wigan, Greater Manchester, were thrilled when she then fell pregnant with Charlie Jo three years later to complete their family. But this time the pregnancy was much more problematic.

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Charlie Jo was born last February 6 after her mother went into labour in the 24th week of pregnancy and was given steroid injections to increase her unborn baby's chance of survival.

Miss Snalam said: "I had the usual morning sickness at the beginning for about six weeks then I started feeling fantastic.

"Then at 14 weeks I had just been here and tidied up and I got quite a serious stabbing pain in my tummy. I didn't feel right, went to the loo and there was blood everywhere. I thought I had miscarried. I had miscarried aged 30, before I had Holly. I thought I had lost our baby, it felt the same."

Doctors hoped she wouldn't give birth until she reached 28 weeks, but just a few days later she was taken into the Royal Bolton Hospital.

Because she was bleeding heavily, doctors immediately decided to perform an emergency Caesarean section.

After she was born, Charlie Jo was placed in an incubator and could not he held by her parents until she was eight days old.

Miss Snalam said: "I was allowed to hold her for about ten minutes. It was like holding air. Her tiny body pretty much fit into my two hands lengthways."

Charlie Jo was kept in hospital on oxygen before finally being allowed to go home three months later.

Miss Snalam added: "We got her home three weeks before her due date and she went from strength to strength. She's a very smiley baby. Holly is great with Charlie, really fantastic, always playing with her."