© IMAGE SUPPLIED BY BARCROFT MEDIA

Staring inquisitively into the lens these babies look like naturals under the crystal clear waters.

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Pictured here at the ‘Baby Swim Series’ class in West London, these cute and sometimes hilarious images show you’re never too young to learn.

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Phil Shaw and his partner Ana Torres set up ‘London Baby Swim’ in 2008, offering classes for parents and babies as young as six weeks old to take to the water and develop their skills.

And with enrolment numbers rising from just 85 in the first year to 500 this summer, it appears baby swimming classes are the hot new trend.

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Shaw, who said swimming is hugely beneficial in building muscles, holds a photo shoot at the end of every term.

He said: “The classes are great because the babies develop all sorts of motor skills and learning skills in the babies.

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“In the first few years of a baby’s life they experience huge development as their brain grows faster than in later years.

“With our swimming lessons we are helping babies to make new brain connections and strengthen their learning through skills and stimulation, and a weekly swim provides a good workout and improves the cardiovascular system.”

© BARCROFT MEDIA

When London Baby Swim was first founded, enrolments for the first term were just 85.

Now the school has around 500 babies at any time taking swimming classes with up to eight at a time in a class.

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These are held with parents also in the water and are led by a team of qualified instructors.

Up until the age of around nine months babies have a miraculous gag reflex which blocks off their windpipes as soon as they are underwater, allowing them to instinctively hold their breath.

© BARCROFT MEDIA

Parents spend up to four weeks teaching their babies to get used to the water, holding them as they splash about.
But some take a little longer than others to get used to going underwater.
And as part of the package, parents even get to keep a photographic momento of their child’s first dip.

Words by Isabel Jensen

Naziya and Shazia © Irfan Chudhary / Barcroft India

Doctors at a hospital in Pakistan are debating whether to separate these tiny siamese twins, joined at the head.

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It is still not known whether the two-week-old twins share a brain, if this is the case separation would be almost impossible.

As neurosurgeons, paediatricians and plastic surgeons discuss the case, Naziya and Shaziya’s parents are left hoping for a miracle.

“I wept a lot upon seeing my daughters, but I think God has bestowed us with this and we can only pray for their well-being,” said the girl’s father Sher Ali, 37.

The gorgeous girls are joined at the forehead, but each as a perfectly formed face with two eyes, a nose and mouth.

They were born by caesarean section in a remote part of Pakistan.

A doctor examines Naziya and Shazia © Irfan Chudhary / Barcroft India

Their mother, Suraya Bibi, 32, had no idea she was carrying conjoined twins and fainted when doctors broke the news.

“I prayed to have a daughter and God sent me two,” she said.

“It was a moment of excitement when one of the nurses told me about the birth of two daughters.

“I got upset upon seeing my daughters.

“I started crying before fainting as it was something I had never imagined.”

When the girls were just three days old their labourer father brought them to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad where doctors have conducted a barrage of blood, heart and ultrasound tests on the duo.

Dr. Kifayat Khan said: “Our priority is to stabilise them before they go under the knife.”

“We are now planning to carry out the MRI of the head which would make all the things clear.

“But the risks are manifold in these types of surgeries.”

If surgery is possible it will cost around £3,175, which will be paid by  the Pakistan government as the girl’s family is too poor to bear the expenses.

Pakistan International Airlines has also announced it will provide free travel services for the family if they need to move to another city for treatment.

Words by Lucy Tatchell

© Barcroft Pacific / Barcroft Media

A mum who watched helplessly as her baby fell under a train in its pram and miraculously survived has spoken about the terrifying incident for the first time.

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Shaken Shweta Verma, 29, said she thought she had lost six month old baby Saurish for good after desperately trying to grab the buggy as it rolled away from her on a train platform.

The dentist, who was traveling with her only child on a train for the very first time, said “everything went blank” as the train ground to a halt 30 metres down the track with the pushchair underneath.

But she then heard the amazing sound of Saurish crying.

© Barcroft Pacific / Barcroft Media

The incredible footage was captured on the train station’s CCTV and has become an internet phenomenon around the world.

Shweta, from Melbourne in Australia, said: “I thought I’d lost my child, who I love more than anyone or anything else.

“It was a life and death fear.”

Shweta had taken the pushchair brake off to get ready to board the train – but momentarily let go of the buggy to pull her trousers up a bit.

© Barcroft Pacific / Barcroft Media

Describing how the incident happened she said: “It was the first time I had travelled on a train with him, but I thought it would be all right.

“I had the brake on, but as the train approached I began preparing myself. I took the brake off and my hands left the pram for a fraction of a second and suddenly it was flying off the platform.”

Her voice shaking, she added: “There was a downward slope on the platform and it rolled away so quickly… I couldn’t catch it. I tried to grab it but it had gone.

“All I remember is that my first reaction was to grab for the pram.

“I was about to jump down after it… then everything went blank.”

Shweta thought her baby didn’t stand a chance and was paralysed with fear.

But she then heard the most amazing sound – Saurish crying.

© Barcroft Pacific / Barcroft Media

She said: “Everything was so fast and terrifying. I was crying ‘What has happened to my baby, my baby, my baby!”

Then she heard his screams.

Shweta added: “The first feeling was ‘My baby is alive!’

“It was the most incredible moment I have ever experienced.

“I would equate it to having being in excruciating pain and shock and suddenly being washed with an overwhelming feeling of relief.

“All I could think was, ‘I want to see him. I want to know how he is.’

“We lifted Saurish out and then I was holding him in my arms.

“People were saying I shouldn’t be doing that in case there were any internal injuries, but by that stage I wasn’t going to let him go.

“He was still crying, but he was with the person he was most familiar with. He seemed to know, ‘I’m ok now, I’m in my mother’s arms.’

© Barcroft Pacific / Barcroft Media

“I was crying. I’d been thinking, ‘Oh God!’ And now all I could say was,‘ Thank you God! You have taken good care of him and it is because of your grace that he is in my arms.’”

Baby Saurish was rushed to hospital – but stunned doctors released him less than an hour later with just a couple of minor cuts and bruises.

But Shweta says he now cries hysterically when she tries to put him in a new pushchair and believes he may have suffered underlying shock.

She said: “I can’t imagine what he was hearing and looking at.”

Shweta added she is relying on her partner Ankush for support to cope with the devastating accident that happened at 4pm on October 15 at Ashburton station in the East of Melbourne City Centre.

She said: “I try to keep myself busy. If I get upset, I talk to my baby or sing him a lullaby.

“I talk to Ankush – he’s been there for me the whole time. But I know I have to get over it.

“Whenever my mind goes back there I say, ‘Ok Shweta, there could have been a dramatically worse outcome.

“It will never go away from my mind, but I have to move on.”

Words by Jon Kaila

© Richard Heeks / Barcroft Media

Horrified onlookers visiting a bird reserve witnessed the cruelty of nature first hand when a gull suddenly snatched up and gobbled down a cute duckling – in one gulp.

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These shocking pictures, taken by an amateur photographer, captured the heart-rending moment a herring gull swooped in with the helpless baby mallard duck caught firmly in its sharp beak.

© Richard Heeks / Barcroft Media

Snapper Richard Heeks, a PhD student studying writing in education at the University of Exeter, Devon,. visited Slimbridge Wildfowl Reserve, Glos., earlier this month to capture the park’s flamingos on camera.

But tranquility turned to a shocking scene as the gull treated itself to a duckling dinner in front of park-goers.

© Richard Heeks / Barcroft Media

Shaken Richard, 33, said: “I saw the gull flying in and thought it had a plant in it’s mouth and then I saw it was actually a tiny duckling, just hanging helplessly.

“It was painful to watch as the gull shook the little fellah around like a dog with a toy then just swallowed him whole. I had to look away.

“A few other people were standing nearby and watching, not quite believing what they saw. A man standing next to me was giving his wife a running commentary and even though I had turned my back I heard how the gull just swallowed him up.

© Richard Heeks / Barcroft Media

“I think the duckling was taken from nearby marshes a few moments before.”

Disturbed Richard said future trips to the seaside will never be the same after the surrounding gulls started squawking together in a frenzy.

© Richard Heeks / Barcroft Media

“The strange thing about the whole scene was that all the other gulls around all began shrieking when the gull flew in with the duckling,” he said. “It’s a sound we’re used to hearing at the seaside, but it sounds horrific to me now.

“It felt like we were in Hitchcock’s The Birds with all the horrible noise.”

Words by Liam Miller

© Niklas Halle'n / Barcroft Media

Shilpa the 15-day-old baby hippo cools off with her mother in Delhi
zoo as they try to escape the sweltering summer heat.

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Named by curious local visitors, crowds of onlookers have flocked to
popular Delhi zoo, eager to catch a glimpse of their new favourite.

And with temperatures approaching 38 degrees (100 Celsius) and with
the relative failure of the cooling monsoon, Delhi’s newest arrival
has had a tough first two weeks.

“Even though we have abundant wildlife here in India, African animals
still fascinate people,” says Anand Krishna, a spokesperson for Delhi
Zoo.

“It is because she is so cute right now that the public want to catch
a glimpse of her.

“It seems unthinkable that she will grow one day to almost two tons
and be nearly nine feet long.

“Visitors here have been really taken by her though and even though it
is not our policy to name our animals I think this one will stick.”

© Niklas Halle'n / Barcroft Media

Built in 1959, Delhi’s Zoological park is home to nearly 2000 species
of animals and birds.

Housing wildlife from across the Indian sub-continent the zoo is
actively engaged with conservation partner schemes across the country.

Words by James Nye

Ape mum Heather Grierson is so devoted to her adopted baby gibbon she
even takes the tiny primate into her local cinema.

For full story and pictures:

Animal lover Heather, 49, park director of the Kisma Wildlife Preserve
in Mt Desert, Maine, USA, has been mothering cute Tica 24-hours-a-day
for 13 weeks after her young mother – a resident at the park – proved
unable to care for her offspring.

It means the wildlife lover now eats, sleeps and even shops with her
furry baby, drawing curious stares from other residents of the small
American town.

Normally when the surrogate mum can’t  find a suitable baby-sitter she
is forced to stay in and cancels her night s out.

But on some occasions – like when Trekker Heather has tickets booked
to see the latest Star Trek film and can’t find a nanny – she takes
Tica with her and simply ignores the weird looks from passers by.

“I wasn’t going to miss that for anything,” said Heather.

“Normally my staff are on hand to look after her for a while but it
didn’t work out that time. Instead,

“I just wrapped Tica up in her favourite sarong and took her along to
the movie theatre. Fortunately the staff didn’t notice she was inside
when I arrived so I managed to smuggle her in. I don’t think they
would have liked it.

“She’s was good as gold in the theatre and I don’t think anyone else
spotted I had a live baby gibbon with me. She didn’t make peep.”

Two weeks after she was born in March, Tica’s natural mother was
struggling to cope and Heather and her team decided to remove.

In the ape’s natural habitat in South East Asia it is a regular
occurrence that young gibbon mums are unable to bear the
responsibility of offspring.

Sadly the infant usually dies but it’s a natural process where the
developing parent gets a chance to practice at childcare and ensures
they are better equipped the next time around.

But for Heather, whose wildlife sanctuary has been involved in a
breeding programme for 20 years in a desperate attempt to save the
species’ dwindling population, all loses are unacceptable.

“In my lifetime their numbers have dropped worldwide by 90%,” said
Heather. “They are losing their habitat as palm oil plantations move
in and the resident population just dies out.

“We are doing everything we can here to boost their numbers and keep a
healthy population alive.”

The need for baby gibbons to have permanent social contact when they
grow is vital to their adult well-being.

Heather added: “If they don’t have that contact then they can develop
sever psychological problems. Tica will be gradually introduced to our
other gibbons here at the park or to another group we have in Miami.”

But until the adorable critter is at least six months, she will be
clinging to her favourite cuddly toy, Heather’s neck and getting all
the motherly love she needs.

“I have to be careful with my choice of clothes so I don’t end up
topless,” said Heather. “She has a good grip and she can pull off
flimsy shoulder straps quite easily.”

She added: “The best thing everyone can do to save these amazing
animals is to avoid palm oil. It is in everything from fried chicken
to cosmetics and we have survived for thousands of years without it.
It isn’t necessary but the gibbons need their habitat.”

Words by Liam Miller

Baby wombats Karina and Riley need to be wrapped up warm while they wait for their fur to grow. The adorable marsupials should be snug in their mothers pouches but were orphaned when their mums were killed by motorists near Melbourne, Australia.

Luckily wombat enthusiast and wildlife carer Linda Sauvarin saved the day by extracting the pinkie wombats from their dead mother’s pouches and nursing them to health.

For full story and pictures:

Linda, who runs a small sanctuary entirely on donations, is bottle-feeding the bald babies every four hours and using heat pads to protect their naked bodies from the Aussie winter.

“I do it completely for the love of it from my own money,” says Linda, 41, who lives with her two daughters at her home in Melbourne which doubles as the Warrandyte Wildlife Shelter.

“I just adore wombats, they are the most gorgeous, inquisitive and gregarious little animals. And when they get a bit older they start playing like little spring lambs.

“They’ll jump up in the air and do 360 spins, it’s the cutest thing to watch.”

Pregnant wombats are often killed on the roads but the babies, protected in the pouch, can survive and be reared by loving human hands.

“They used to just kill any babies that were found,” says Linda. ”I can’t bear the thought of that – they’re such beautiful creatures.”

Wombats are peaceful and sociable animals that survive on a vegetarian diet. When Karina and Riley reach 20-25kg Linda will release them back to the wild where they’ll live in burrows and hopefully breed.

Wombats are not aggressive creatures and their main defence against predators is their thick, hardy rump made from a mass of cartilage. If a wombat is chased it will head for a burrow and block the intruder with it’s hefty bum which is resilient to bites and scratches.

Karina, was found three weeks ago in a town called Healesville, and Riley was picked up two days later at a separate location near Maryknoll. They are both around three months old and have doubled their weight since being saved but it may be two years before they are independent enough to be released back into the wild.

To ask Linda a question about the wombats or make a donation for their care email: wombie@bigpond.net.au

Words by Isla Harvey
Pictures by Duncan Lovett 

Words by James Nye
Pictures by Niklas Halle’n

The world’s oldest mother has told Elizabeth Adeney to hold her head
high and ignore critics who feel she is too old to have a child.

Speaking from India, Rajo Devi, who gave birth in December last year
at the age of 70, has offered advice and support to Adeney, who has
faced a barrage of criticism after becoming the UK’s oldest mum at 66.

For full story and pictures:

“Why should she be embarrassed? I salute her!” says Rajo.

“She must be proud of herself. She risked her life and gave birth to a
baby. It is a courageous effort.”

Speaking from her simple brick house in the town of Badhu Patti, in
the north Indian state of Haryana, Rajo expressed her dismay when told
of the controversy surrounding Adeney thousands of miles away in
Britain.

“It is a purely personal choice,” explains Rajo.

“Everybody has the right to do whatever they want to do. Any woman who
wants to have children at an older age must be allowed that, as long
as a doctor has said it is fine.

“If some one says to me it is bad I tell them bluntly, that is your
problem and it is not mine, for I now have a beautiful child.

“Do you wish I didn’t have my child? Do they wish her (Elizabeth’s)
child was not alive?”

Sitting with her six-month-old girl Naveen on her lap, Rajo and her
husband Bala Ram beamed as they spoke of how their 55 year wait for a
child ended last year after IVF treatment.

“If you have been waiting all your life to have a child and are ready
for it, then anyone must be allowed,” says Rajo.

“This is especially true for women like me and Elizabeth who are
having their first child.”

Rajo and Bala Ram, who is 72, both raised wry smiles when asked what
was now in store for Elizabeth, who gave birth to a son by caesarean
section on Tuesday of last week (May 26).

“I had no experience of rearing a baby and in old age it becomes
difficult to learn things but still I mange to keep my baby alright
with the help of my husband and sister,” says Rajo.

“She just wakes me once during the night. I need to feed her milk and
change her clothes.

“When you love some one and try so hard to get them in this world then
you can sacrifice your rest time.

“And I have got lot of support from my family especially my husband
and sister, Om Pati, who take care of her when I can not manage.”

Fit and healthy, Naveen has still caused her parents a few sleepless
nights when she has come down with a case of the sniffles.

“My neighbours have laughed with me when my baby becomes ill,” says
Rajo.

“Being older, I am used to telling younger members of my village to
get on with life when they become ill.

“Now, when my little girl gets a cold I make the whole world stop to
make sure she gets to the doctor so I can make sure she is not really
ill.”

Dividing the care of her child between her immediate family, Rajo
offers her sternest advice to Elizabeth Adeney on the pressures of
being an older mother.

“I would like to hold her hand and take her through my struggles,”
says Rajo.

“She is a courageous woman as she has decided to have a baby at such
an old age.

“It is not only difficult health wise but it is also a taboo. People
say lot of things and one needs courage for facing that.”

“It is a tiresome job for her. She needs the support of her family.

Imploring Adeney to ignore any critics who say she is too old, Rajo
says that Elizabeth needs to keep her strength for her child.

“She must keep the health of the baby on priority,” Rajo says.

“Besides, she must take good care of her own health. If she is healthy
then only she can rear her child well.

“I strongly advise her to feed the baby her own milk because that is
healthy for the baby and is disease free. If she does that it will be
very easy for her and she will enjoy it.”

Having conceived a child through IVF treatment at the controversial
Hisar National Fertility Clinic in Haryana, Rajo offers her sympathies
to Adeney as she struggles to return to full health.

“”My last months of pregnancy were difficult because I could not move
easily and became weak. But god gave me enough courage to come out of
it well,” says Rajo.

“Elizabeth will face a long road to feel herself again and that will
be difficult as she tries to care for her new-born son.”

Having mortgaged their crops and taken out high interest loans from
local lenders to pay for the IVF treatment, Rajo and her husband are
in debt to the tune of £2000.

“The debt is manageable,” Rajo says firmly.

“What we have is worth more than all the money in the world and that
is what matters.”

However, one subject that is never far from Rajo’s mind is the
unavoidable one of her advanced age and what that may mean for her
child’s future.

“Every mother worries for her children in that way,” explains Rajo.

“If I would die tomorrow there are enough people to take her care.
Every mother would love to see her children grown up and standing on
their own feet.

“But if I die tomorrow it is my destiny and my child has the chance to
have her own”.

Words: Karen Grattage
Pictures: Mark Clifford / Barcroft Media 

DEVOTED mum Samantha Holloway faces a daily battle to feed her baby,
who needs 3,000 calories a day to help her grow.

Tiny Agatha Holloway, 16 months, nearly died when she was born three
months prematurely, and is still physically small at less than 17lbs.

Read the full amazing story here:

Samantha has a huge job preparing healthy but high-calorie meals, and
says women like 29-stone Leanne Salt, who feeds her eight-month-old
triplets McDonalds, give mothers a bad name.

Agatha, from Cobham, Surrey, is pictured surrounded by a week’s worth
of food, which includes porridge with clotted cream, hummus, full fat
yoghurt, roast duck or pork, vegetables in olive oil, chocolate and
milky deserts.

The tiny tot has to put away 3,000 calories, as much as a fully grown
man, and must eat this until she catches up with other youngsters over
the next year or so.

Samantha, 35, said: “Agatha sees a paediatric dietician and she needs
foods with a high fat and protein content to help her grow.

“It angers me when I see mums giving their healthy children fatty,
processed meals.

“I hate having to give Agatha chocolate puddings while her friends are
having healthy fruit, but it’s what we have to do.”

When she arrived 11 weeks early, weighing 3lb 11oz, Agatha suffered
heart failure and doctors fought for 90 minutes to resuscitate her and
help her breathe on a ventilator.

In her first precious months, the tiny baby battled against a brain
haemorrhage, chronic lung disease, an open heart duct, life-
threatening high blood pressure and an immature gut, which meant she
couldn’t digest milk.

Samantha, a management consultant, said: “I was horrified when I saw
the woman who feeds her babies McDonalds. How could a mother do that?

“I have no choice but to feed Agatha so many calories, but I’d never
do it with fast food. We have to find healthy but high-calorie meals.

“We have to feed her full fat milk, clotted cream, avocados, chocolate
and lots of protein. We choose meat such as duck and pork which has a
high-fat content. But I never use ready meals as these are full of
salt, which is bad.

“Agatha even has lashings of olive oil on her roast vegetables to try
to get more calories into her.

“It’s very difficult. We used to weigh Agatha’s bib before she had a
meal, and then afterwards to calculate how much food was wasted. If
she hadn’t eaten enough, we had to keep trying throughout the day.

“Now Agatha is a bit older she is eating more for herself, and is
drinking from a cup and straw.

“But it is embarrassing when we go out. I always unwrap her milky way
deserts from the wrapper and put them in a sandwich box so people
can’t really see what she’s eating.”

The caring mum decided to speak out to help other parents understand
why some premature babies, and children with heart conditions, need
what might seem like an unhealthy diet.

Samantha added: “It’s hard and against your natural instincts as a
mother, which is to give your child healthy food.

“I can’t understand how anyone would knowingly give their baby fatty
food when they don’t need to.”

When she was born at St George’s Hospital, Tooting, on New Year’s Eve,
2007, Agatha took the last remaining incubator on the neonatal
intensive care ward, and this, along with the dedicated care of
medical staff, saved her life.

Samantha, and her husband Neil, 48, a director, have launched Agatha’s
Appeal to raise £25,000 for a further specialist cot, which could help
to save hundreds more seriously ill babies.

When she was born, Agatha suffered heart failure, followed by two
bleeds on her brain, and had a serious of heart, lung and stomach
problems.

She was finally allowed home at three and a half months but was still
suffering from reflux, where stomach contents come back into the
gullet or mouth and make babies stop breathing.

“It was causing Agatha too much pain to drink milk,” said her mum.

“We had to wean her on to solids almost overnight and being on home
oxygen meant that Agatha used up a lot of calories just breathing.”

Then began the daily battle to ensure Agatha gained enough weight so
she could grow stronger and overcome her illnesses.

Samantha said: “Agatha is still very small and is behind physically.

“Feeding her so many meals is hard, but I know it’s better than having
her fed by tube.

“Any woman who feeds her babies on nothing but chips and fried food
should be ashamed, there really is no excuse as ready meals are often
more expensive than the healthier option and what we do as

Mum’s impacts our children for the rest of their lives.” .

“We have to feed Agatha so many calories for now, but eventually
she’ll catch up with other children, and then things will be easier.

“The dietician monitors everything and has told us there won’t be any
bad effects long term, as she’ll eat healthy food when she’s older.”

The Holloway family, their friends and local community are holding
fundraising events for Agatha’s Appeal, and are encouraging people to
take part, or make a donation.

More information is available at www.agathasappeal.co.uk