My Charlie, born at 23 weeks, the living proof that abortion limit has to be slashed

He was so tiny, he fitted into the palm of his mother’s hand.
Born at 23 weeks and weighing just 1lb 7oz, Charlie Allen was the country’s most premature twin at the time of his birth.
He was given a bleak seven per cent chance of survival, but five years on he has defied the odds by growing into a healthy, happy little boy. 
 His mother Emma, a business support executive, said he was living proof that the limit on abortion should be reduced from 24 weeks.

‘When he was born he was so tiny he could have fit into my hand, my wedding ring could go all the way up his arm and I wasn’t allowed to hold or stroke him as his skin was so thin it could tear,’ she said.
‘He couldn’t breathe on his own and was immediately put in a ventilator. It was absolutely awful.’

The first-time mother and her then husband Bobby, a carpenter from whom she has since separated, were stunned when she gave birth to Charlie and his brother Jack, who was even smaller at 1lb 4oz, so early into her pregnancy.
When Jack died after succumbing to an infection at 11 days old, doctors warned Mr and Mrs Allen that Charlie was facing the same fate and at one point gave him just 12 hours to live.
Charlie’s survival prompted Mrs Allen to re-ignite the debate on the abortion time limit, and she has called for the current 24-week deadline to be lowered.
She said: ‘How can you say at that stage that they are not a life. They are babies - Charlie is living proof of that.

‘The abortion time limit should be reduced.
‘Charlie has amazed all his doctors and the hospital staff. He was faced with battle after battle from the moment he was born, but he’s overcome them all – he’s my little fighter.’
Just 13 weeks after his birth, Charlie suffered a perforation in his stomach caused by medication he was being given to help close a hole in his heart.
He had to have a major operation to remove blood clots from the healing wound before having a heart operation at 14 weeks to close the duct manually.

He was 19 weeks old before he could be bottle-fed and it was not until he was 20 weeks, that his mother could hold him properly for the first time.
At five months, although he was still on oxygen, Charlie’s parents were finally allowed to take him to their home in Diss, Norfolk.
Mrs Allen, 31, said: ‘I couldn’t believe we were home at last, up until then I had practically lived at the hospital and not left his side.
‘The doctors were amazed that against all the odds, he was finally strong enough. I could see how hard he was fighting to stay alive at every  hurdle. When I finally had him home, I wrapped him up cotton wool.’

Charlie was not allowed to play with other children in case he picked up any illnesses until he came off the oxygen at the age of two.
Only nine per cent of babies born at 23 weeks will ever leave hospital.
It is up to individual health trusts to decide whether or not they follow NHS guidelines on resuscitating babies born earlier than 24 weeks.
Mrs Allen was given the choice to resuscitate her identical twins when she gave birth at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.
She said: ‘Fortunately for us, there was no blanket policy in place at Norfolk and Norwich. It makes me so angry that I want to cry when people say babies at 23 weeks should not be resuscitated. 

‘Look at Charlie – the very fact that he is here and is well, is living proof that they should be.’
The only tell-tale sign of Charlie’s traumatic entrance into the world is that he is short-sighted and is smaller then the average five-year-old, weighing just two stone and wearing clothes made for three-year-olds.
Mrs Allen said: ‘He may be on the small size, but Charlie can more then look after himself. I still see the fighting spirit in him that saved his life when he was just a baby.’
Mrs Allen has set up funds in the names of her sons – the Jack Allen  Precious Star Fund and Charlie Allen Sunshine Fund – to raise money for BLISS, a premature baby charity.

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