Noelle Spivey, 35, discovered her unborn child had a rare congenital foetal abnormality at a 12-week ultrasound.

Blaire, her daughter, was born with sirenomelia, which means her legs were twisted backward from the knee and united at the feet.

Doctors also revealed that it wasn’t an issue of ‘if’ but rather ‘when’ Blaire will die.

‘It felt like a lifetime while we were in there,’ said Noelle, a dental assistant from Lubbock, Texas, US.

‘When the doctor arrived, he basically said, “Your baby has a fatal condition.”

‘I burst out crying; becoming pregnant had been difficult enough. “It’s not a question of if she’ll die, but of when,” they added.

Blaire, on the other hand, defied the odds, surviving birth and a seven-hour procedure to separate her legs when she was 18 months old, as well as amputation of her legs at the knee.

Noelle was adamant about not giving up on her kid and was rigorously examined throughout her pregnancy.

‘Most newborns diagnosed with mermaid syndrome as a fetus do not develop a kidney, intestines, or genitals,’ she said. It’s terrifying.’

When Noelle’s scheduled C-section date approached, physicians discovered that her amniotic fluid levels had fallen at her 37-week check, so she was hurried for an emergency C-section.

She said Blaire’s birth ‘was the happiest moment of [her] life’

‘Once they made sure she was OK I got to see her and she was crying,’ she added. ‘I put my hand on her head, she looked at me and stopped crying.

‘She was born with lungs, heart, brain – everything was normal. But she only had one of her two bones in her lower legs. Below her knee, it was rotated backwards and everything was fused.

‘I had been terrified of the unknown. But seeing her in person – I was just calm.’

When she was just one day old, baby Blaire had surgery to fit her with a colostomy bag to help her with intestinal problems.

Then, when she was 18 months old, she had further surgery on her legs.

Noelle said: ‘She was amputated at the knee and had stubbies fitted the next spring.

‘Last summer, she had her first full-length prosthesis built with feet,’ says the doctor.

Blaire still has a few health issues that doctors are investigating, such as the fact that she only has a half bladder, but her mother Noelle described her as “sassy” and “strong.”

‘She’s incredibly brilliant and hilarious,’ she remarked. She’s only recently discovered how to cross her eyes.

‘She’s a marvel. We have begun wheelchair tennis and cheerleading. I wish her a long, happy, and healthy life.’

Blaire may now take her first steps with full-length prosthetic legs.

‘I was concerned that I would be afraid of my baby while pregnant,’ Noelle explained.

‘But when I saw her tiny feet and heart, I wasn’t scared at all.

‘I thought, she’s just my baby,’ she said. She is flawless.

‘I tell her she was born a mermaid,’ she says. And I tell her, “Not everyone is used to having cool legs like you.”

‘They thought she wouldn’t walk. She’s beaten the odds.

‘She’s just a normal kid. It’s amazing to be her mum.’