Baby joy for near-death anorexic

Hayley recovered from anorexia to give birth to a healthy baby boy

Five years ago, weighing just 5st 1lb, Hayley Wilde was told by doctors she had only days left to live.

So sick her hair fell out, the skeletal teenager, who had suffered from anorexia since she was 11, was hospitalised and brought back from the brink.

But it was not the end.

Over the next three-and-a-half years, the teenager from Blackpool was hospitalised five times.

At her lowest ebb, she was fed through an intravenous tube. In 2005, she spent just seven weeks out of hospital.

But in March this year, Hayley - now 20 - defied the odds by giving birth to a healthy baby boy.

Baby Michael was born in March, weighing a healthy 7lb 14oz.

It was something neither Hayley, nor her mother Jane, ever believed would happen.

The new mother said she hoped to help other anorexia sufferers

Jane Wilde said her daughter's periods had only recently returned when she fell pregnant.

She said: "It was a miracle. I was so very proud. She coped so well when she was pregnant, she ate very well and ate healthily.

"It was frightening for her at first because she realised she was getting bigger, but she coped really well."

Hayley became so proud of her bump she had professional photographs taken of her during her pregnancy.

Her mother Jane said: "I was so proud of that picture - I never expected in my wildest dreams that it could happen."

Mrs Wilde, who has set up a support group for families of anorexia sufferers, described how she first realised her daughter was suffering from an eating disorder when she saw her hiding food.

The teenager would stuff food into her pockets or down her trousers, and throw it away when her parents went out. She drank water to make herself feel full.

On one occasion, while on a shopping trip for summer clothes, Mrs Wilde saw her daughter undress in a changing room.

She said: "I told her, 'I've got to go outside because I feel sick and I'm going to faint'.

"I thought she had got cancer, all I could see was bones."

Hayley, who is now studying to be a teacher, said she hoped her experience would help other people battling anorexia.

She said: "I didn't really want a baby, I hadn't had it in mind because I didn't like the idea of becoming fat and big.

"Already though, I thought I was big and fat. I didn't think I wanted a baby at all but he [Michael] has definitely changed my mind."