Poppy Screen weighed 10lb 15oz and was so big that she became trapped during birth. She was unable to breathe, so medics had to break her arm to save her.

 “We knew Poppy was on the big side but we didn’t know how big or I would not have risked a natural delivery,” Poppy’s mother Lucy Screen, 26, told Daily Mail.

Poppy was Lucy’s second child, so she thought delivery would be easy enough, but it didn’t do according to the plan. No matter how hard Poppy’s mother and medics tried, the baby’s shoulders got stuck behind the mother’s pelvis and she couldn’t breathe.

“Alarm bells were ringing and people were running in and out like a scene from a film … I knew we were losing her because I could see tears in the eyes of one of the midwives. I begged them to do anything to save her,” said Lucy. “I think they were a bit worried when they told me they’d had to break Poppy’s arm, but I couldn’t thank them enough… She wouldn’t be here today if they hadn’t broken her arm.”

After one of consultants broke the girl’s arm she could be delivered. Lucy was sure her daughter had died, but medics continued CPR on the baby until finally, after 12 minutes, she took her first breath. Then she was taken to the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport.

Poppy’s parents were warned that there was a risk of brain injury, since she remained breathless for a long time, but fortunately, everything was OK with her. She began to breathe unaided and five days after the birth her parents were allowed to hold her for the first time. Poppy was discharged five weeks later and is now a perfectly healthy eight-month-old girl.

Lucy Screen is now calling for increased growth screening in the later stages of pregnancy to prevent incidents like her daughter’s.