A heartbroken husband has cuddled the baby his wife never saw after she died of a heart attack giving birth.
Lifelong asthma sufferer Caroline Howarth, 24, defied the odds to get pregnant and couldn't wait to hold the baby girl she was expecting.
But when she was about to give birth she had an asthma attack which caused her heart to stop beating.
Doctors carried out an emergency Caesarian operation to deliver 6lb 11oz baby Hallie-Rose but Caroline never recovered consciousness and died two days later.
Her husband Lee, 26, has promised to bring little Haillie-Rose up just as Caroline would have wanted.
He said: "Caroline was so excited at being pregnant but she never got to see our baby. But I will make sure I bring her up just as she would have wanted - with a great love of life.
"I will tell Haillie-Rose what a beautiful person her mother was. Already I look at our little girl and she reminds me of Caroline l - it makes me feel she is not very far away."
Brave Caroline fought against the odds all her life - she was given a 10 per cent chance of survival when she was born with two holes in the heart.
Caroline was hit by asthma and bouts of pneumonia as a child but she managed to live a normal life. She was told she would never walk again after breaking her back in a car accident eight years ago but she proved the doctors wrong.
Caroline was given the all-clear to have a baby after meeting talented amateur footballer Lee. But doctors warned the couple there was only a slight chance of her conceiving because she had cysts on her ovaries.
But Caroline proved the doctors wrong again and broke the news she was pregnant to Lee by greeting him one morning with the words: "Hello daddy!"
Caroline knew she was having a little girl and had picked the baby's name and decorated the nursery in pink, lemon and white ready for her arrival.
Lee said: "We were perfect together and were so looking forward to becoming parents. We loved to nestle up and watch Caroline's favourite Disney films - she had them all on DVD and Beauty and the Beast was her favourite.
"It breaks my heart that she never got the chance to cuddle up with Haillie-Rose. But I will give her loads of cuddles and tell our little girl about her mum and all the bits of the films that made her laugh."
Caroline, of Pontypool, South Wales, suffered oxygen starvation during the heart attack after going into labour in May.
Lee and Caroline's family later took the heartbreaking decision to switch off her life support machine after being told she would never recover from permanent brain damage
Brave Lee told how it was the hardest moment of his life as he cuddled their newborn baby while Caroline slowly slipped away at the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport.
He said: "At first I couldn't grasp that I was really losing her. I told the doctors I wanted to keep Caroline on the machines forever until she woke up.
"But then I realised it wasn't the best thing for her and I had no choice but to let you go. I had one thing I knew I had to do for her - I asked nurses to fetch Hallie-Rose from intensive care.
"They brought her in into the ward and I lifted her out of her cot and laid her next to you. I wanted Caroline to be with the daughter she never got to meet."
Little Hallie-Rose, who is now two months old is being brought up by Lee and Caroline's family in Pontypool. Caroline's devastated mother Marilyn Brooks said: "Even though this has happened Caroline would be over the moon to see that her daughter has had a better start in life than she had herself.
"Caroline was a determined woman who had overcame her health problems to marry husband Lee and have her child. She would have been the perfect mother of she had pulled through."
