Today the technology has improved to such an extent that even a fetus can be operated into the mother’s womb now. Recently, Ecstatic Hayden and Tarryn Ford, of Umhlanga are blessed with a healthy baby boy who was operated inside his mother’s womb when he was 31 weeks old.

Upon screening the 31 weeks pregnant mother, the doctors came to know that fluid is building up in the fetus’s chest. To save the life of that child he was immediately operated at Parklands Hospital, in Durban, by a team of specialists. They placed a shunt around the area to deplete that fluid. On Tuesday, after completing 38 weeks of her pregnancy, Tarryn Ford gave birth to a 3.32 kg baby boy named Joel Hayden Ford. Though it was a C-section but both the mother and child are absolutely fine.

The technology that had been used for placing shunt into fetus’s chest is known as a new life-saving pinhole surgery technique. It is one in 15,000 fetuses that suffer from such painful condition, known as hydrothorax.

According to foetal specialist Ismail Bhorat, "The condition occurs in about one in 15,000 foetuses. The build-up of fluid places pressure on the baby's chest cavity and can cause breathing problems and prevent the heart from pumping properly".