An unborn baby has been seen kicking her legs in the womb after a rare operation to correct spina bifida was a success.
Sarah Copeland, 36, was told her daughter suffered the condition during a 20 week scan at Basildon Hospital.
Without corrective surgery, the infant would have been born paralysed from the waist down.
Spina bifida, found in about six babies for every 10,000 born, occurs when the spine does not form fully, leaving a hole in the neural tube that surrounds the spinal cord.