Cohan Williams’ mam never thought she would cradle him in her arms – let alone see his beaming face on his first birthday.
When she was taken ill at 24 weeks’ pregnant, doctors who carried out tests failed to find her baby’s heartbeat.
That meant that she and medics were anticipating the heartbreak of a stillbirth.
But miraculously, 12 months later, Alex Jones has seen her bouncing boy turn one.
“I can’t believe he’s here,” she said, still emotionally raw.
“I thought he was a child I would never be able to hold in my arms.
“We couldn’t have expected this. He’s a very special baby.
“For the first two weeks of his life, I wasn’t allowed to hold him, and even then I couldn’t because I was so frightened.
“But look at him now.”
Cohan was delivered in the Special Care Baby Unit at Singleton Hospital in Swansea. He weighed just 1lb 11oz.
Alex had been transferred from Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil to Swansea, in the grim knowledge that her baby’s chances of survival were low.
She fully expected her longed-for little boy never to take his first breath, but he defied the odds at his premature birth.
Doctors were shocked to find that he was in fact breathing and rushed him away so they could resuscitate him fully.
His heartbeat had to be regulated and he remained in intensive care for five months, battling with a number of ailments.
Doctors treated him for a fungal infection and the tiny tot had to be fed through a drip because he was so weak. He also suffered from a clot on his brain.
But he was eventually allowed home, to the joy of his family.
There, still underweight for a baby of his age, Cohan has grown into the happy, smiley baby he is today.
His mother’s worries are gradually easing.
“They called him a miracle baby,” said 21-year-old Alex.
“They couldn’t find any trace of a heartbeat. They gave him no chance at all.
