A newborn clenching their tiny fingers for the first time is a moment all parents want to savour. For Lucy Hellein, though, that memory will be somewhat different to most - as baby Dexter's fist first was balled around her contraceptive coil.

The device, which is more than 99 per cent effective, was intended to stop the one week-old from ever coming into existence. But doctors removed it from behind Hellein's placenta, where it had become lodged, during her caesarean birth on April 27.

The Alabama-based mum praised her "little Jedi" in a Facebook post - before adding that she has since had her fallopian tubes removed in a bid to "shut down the baby factory".

Conceiving now would be near-impossible - but given what Hellein has been through, another little miracle being born against the odds doesn't seem so far-fetched.