A MUM has thanked NHS staff for their amazing care after she gave birth three months prematurely.

Kirsty Anderson, from Burnley, gave birth to Theo Anderson 11 weeks ago at Burnley General Hospital.

Already a mum to 14-month-old Arlo Stobbs, 33-year-old Miss Anderson and her partner Leon Stobbs brought home Theo after nine weeks in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

Miss Anderson said: “He is doing so well, even the nurses commented how well he is doing for a premature baby.

“He has come home now and slotted perfectly into family life.”

But the mum was most thankful to the staff for all their care.

She said: “Some of the nurses pulled their masks down at a distance just to show me who they were and say hello before putting them back on.

“All you saw usually was a blue mask, so it was touching of them to make it a little personal.

“I cannot applaud all the staff more, they were all amazing, down to the cleaners.”

To show her appreciation, Miss Anderson sent the staff a rainbow cake.

She said: “You are in there on your own and cleaners and nurses would come to have a chat. They’d get as close as they were allowed and then just ask how I was, so I wanted to do something for them.”

Theo weighed just two pounds and four ounces when he was born.

Miss Anderson said: “I was scared to pick him up. You have to ask to get them out of the incubator, because they are so tiny and have to be in there for safety reasons.

“They let me kiss him before they took him straight to the NICU.

“It was only after he got into a cot that I felt more confident picking him up.”

The nursery Arlo goes to was closed during lockdown and the mum of two found it hard to cope while also being away from her parents.

She said: “I am very close to my parents usually, but I could not see them so it got very lonely. My waters broke and then everything changed.

“I was at hospital all day and I moved in with my parents because they helped me with Arlo. Later when I was going back and forth to the hospital every day to see Theo.”

Miss Anderson’s waters broke on Friday, but she did not give birth until the Monday at 3am.

The family is now shielding Theo at home for 12 weeks as advised.