AN Ilkley woman has given birth to a ''miracle' baby who beat the odds to survive a very rare complication which would usually have killed him.

Joshua Abraham survived because all the links in the 'chain of survival' combined to work perfectly and overcome one of the most dangerous obstetric emergencies known.

The crisis began when mum Maria Abraham discovered that Joshua's umbilical cord had dropped through the birth canal just after she woke up one morning.

The condition is known as a prolapsed cord and is extremely dangerous for the baby. The prolapsed cord is usually followed down the birth canal by the baby itself, crushing the cord and blocking off its own supply of oxygen, resulting in death or cerebral palsy. As soon as she discovered the

protruding cord, Mrs Abraham telephoned the maternity unit at Airedale General Hospital where the condition was

explained to her.

"It was a case of shock and panic - I was distraught," said Mrs Abraham. Fortunately, she remained calm enough to follow the instructions which she said seemed comical now but were no laughing matter then.

"They told me to get on my hands and knees and to stick my bottom in the air. They sent an ambulance and I had to crawl on to a stretcher like that," said Mrs Abraham.

One of the paramedics in the ambulance crew was Australian Craig Hickson.

He said: "She was in the recommended position to let gravity drag the baby away from the cord because the last thing we want is for the cord to be depressed. It is very sensitive and even handling it can send it into spasm, cutting off the blood supply.

"When this is in the back of your mind you don't want to get it wrong and botch it. It was very difficult to get her in the ambulance - she stood on her hands and knees and crawled on to the stretcher.

The crew, including paramedic Paula Fieldhouse, put Mrs Abraham on oxygen to improve the baby's chances of survival.

" I had to hold on to her because when you are in that position you are very prone to falling off the stretcher," said Mr Hickson.

"Paula drove very steadily and there was about a mile of traffic queuing behind us."

Joshua was delivered by Caesarean section within five minutes of arriving at hospital and placed in an incubator.

Miss Fieldhouse said that she and her colleague remained to see what happened. Although seven weeks early and weighing only four pounds, 11oz, Mrs Abraham only realised how lucky Joshua had been when she later spoke to hospital staff.

"They called him a miracle baby and said they had never had a baby survive for nearly one-and-a-half hours with a prolapsed cord before."