Baby born doing the can-can

Imogen Scully's left leg was stuck in a high kick position for a week after her birth.

Her mother Lara Scully said: “I’d never seen anything like it before and neither had the doctors.”

Miss Scully, 38, had a straightforward pregnancy and went into labour in August 2009.

Doctors at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton discovered it was a footling birth, where the baby is born with both feet first.

What they didn’t know was the baby had entered the birth canal with only one foot first. The other leg had been pushed up towards her head.

Miss Scully, from Brighton, who has a son, Ryan, 11, said: ‘‘It was a much more painful birth that my previous delivery had been.”

Doctors soon discovered Imogen wasn't breathing and it took several minutes to rescuscitate her.

It was when Imogen was handed over to her that Miss Scully made the strange discovery.

She said: “They handed her to me and I didn’t notice at first because she was wrapped in a blanket, but her foot was poking out next to her head.

“I pulled the blanket away and could see her leg lying upwards, it just looked as though she was doing a high kick.

‘I tried to pull her leg down properly, but it just pinged straight back upwards again. I’d never seen anything like it. It was a real shock.”

Doctors told her that it had happened just prior to the birth and the leg should return to a normal position within a few days.

She said: “It looked really strange. I dressed her in little baby-grows and her left foot would be poking out over the top.

“Her leg was right up in the air by her head as if she was doing the can-can.

“Every time I tried to pull it down into a proper position, it would flip straight back up to her head.

“I was beginning to think that it would never straighten itself."

However after a week, the baby's leg went back to normal and Imogen, now 20 months, started to walk when she was a year old.

Miss Scully said: “Thankfully it hasn’t appeared to have had any effect on her walking or crawling.

“Her hips don’t seem to have been affected either, despite her leg being in that position for so long.

“She’s a very strong willed baby, and very happy. She’s always smiling.

“She’s quite tall for her age and has long legs, so she might make a good can-can dancer one day. She’s certainly had good training for it.”