WHEN Bethanie Taylor was born 15 weeks early and weighing just under a pound, doctors gave her only 24 hours to survive.

Last night, two-and-a-half months later, she was allowed out of her incubator to sleep in a cot for the first time.

Staff gathered in the Beeding Ward of Worthing Hospital to watch the special scene, which marks a further stage in Bethanie's long path to lasting health.

Mother Elizabeth Taylor, from Worthing, was terrified when she heard she had pre-eclampsia, which involves high blood pressure and kidney failure. This meant her daughter had to be born by emergency Caesarean at Queen Charlotte Hospital in London on October 20.

As Elizabeth, 28, held Bethanie's tiny hand last night she recalled: "She had stopped growing two weeks before she was born. They gave her a day to live after she was born.

"It was hell because my fiance was in Worthing and I was up in London. She was the size of a Sindy doll when I first saw her, really thin. I've never seen a baby that size."

Bethanie was not due until January 25 this year. It was not, however, the first time Elizabeth experienced an extremely premature birth.

She also developed pre-eclampsia when pregnant with daughter Hayley, now five, who had to be born 12 weeks early.

Bethanie's father, David Potter, 27, said: "It was an unbelievably emotional time for us all. Elizabeth and Bethanie were both covered in tubes and I didn't know whether I would lose one or even both of them."

But mother and daughter fought through and Bethanie yesterday weighed in at a much healthier 4lb 1oz.

It is uncertain when Bethanie will return to the family home in Limbrick Lane, Goring, but she certainly won't lack attention from her parents and staff on the Beeding Ward.

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