Now her parents want to promote the devastating effect birth traumas can have on Birth Trauma Awareness Day, today.

Lorraine McIntyre, 43, and her partner Andy Rayner, 45, of Hipperholme, had been trying for a baby for eight years and were delighted when Lorraine fell pregnant with Amelia, now six, in 2001.

After a trouble-free pregnancy Lorraine was induced at 38 weeks in June 2002 at Calderdale Royal Hospital.

But doctors noticed Amelia's heart rate had slowed right down – a sign of foetal distress – and four-and-a-half hours later, after a three-day labour, they carried out a caesarean section.

But Amelia had been starved of oxygen and had to be resuscitated, causing permanent brain damage. She was diagnosed with a form of cerebral palsy called spastic quadraparesis.

She has eye problems, epilepsy and a severe learning, communication disability and cannot move properly.

Her parents say Amelia, who is under the care of a paediatric consultant at Calderdale Royal, is only expected to live until 40 and will be dependent on carers for the rest of her life. She will never be able to live independently.

Lorraine said: "We try to be as positive as possible about Amelia's situation and do all we can to make her life as normal as possible."

Amelia undergoes twice-weekly physiotherapy sessions and her parents spend more than an hour feeding her every day.

"The fact remains that she requires full time care and we have had to adapt our home extensively to make life as comfortable as possible for her.

"There are, of course, financial implications and although we have been helped by the local authorities we have accepted that we won't get everything we need provided for us this way," added Lorraine.

So now the couple have sent a letter of claim of clinical negligence to Calderdale and Hudder-sfield NHS Foundation Trust in a bid to secure funds for Amelia's long-term care.

Lorraine said: "I am fortunate that I am able to mount a legal case to access more funding for Amelia's care. But it would really help if more people out there understood what it is like for someone raising a disabled child."

The family's solicitor Rachelle Mahapatra, an expert clinical negligence lawyer from Irwin Mitchell, says earlier intervention would have meant Amelia would have been born without problems.

"Hospital staff should have intervened much earlier. Amelia underwent several sustained periods of foetal distress."

A spokesman for the Calderdale and Hudders-field NHS Foundation Trust said: "It would be inappropriate for us to comment in view of the ongoing legal process."