Doctors had to put Valerie Leah into a coma and deliver her son Oliver three months early in order to save her life.

Mrs Leah and her son, who weighed just 2lb 10oz when he was born, then spent months in intensive care at Tameside General Hospital in Greater Manchester.

But four months on, both have recovered and doctors believe they may be the first mother and child to survive such a complex case of swine flu during pregnancy.

Baby Oliver still weighs just 6ib 9oz but the hospital has given him the all-clear.

Mrs Leah, 35, from Mossley, said: "He is a gorgeous baby, he is really chilled out, really happy, we are so happy to have him at home.

"He is so tiny everyone thinks he is a newborn - they are stunned when I tell them he is four months old."

Mrs Leah, contracted the H1N1 virus last November, along with husband Simon and their other children Ben, 10, and five-year-old Lewis.

The mum-of-three developed an air leak in her lungs and needed a special form of ventilation which can only be given to a patient lying face down - impossible while she was heavily pregnant.

After she was put into a medically-induced coma, Oliver was born by caesarean section and cared for in the hospital's special care baby unit.

The staff kept a daily diary for him so his mother would know what had happened to him while she was ill.

Oliver was two weeks old before Mrs Leah met him for the first time.

"He looked really sick," she said, "He was tiny. It was very difficult and I felt very weak, very weepy anyway."

Oliver was very poorly and had to overcome two infections, remaining in hospital until the end of February before being allowed home.