A RUSSIAN woman who flew to Oxford on an £8,000 trip to give birth at the John Radcliffe hospital has had a bouncing baby boy.

Moscow lawyer Svetlana Bakharev, 31, and husband Dimitri, 27, became the proud parents of the 7lb 2oz baby on Wednesday.

The baby, whose name has not yet been revealed, was late arriving - he was due ten days earlier.

Megan Turmezei, of the Oxford Radcliffe, said: "The parents said they were delighted with the delivery, care and standards of midwifery they received.

"It was far beyond their expectations."

She said both mother and baby were in good health and the delivery was fine.

Mrs Bakharev came to Oxford to have her baby because she was terrified of giving birth in a Russian hospital.

She and her husband, who are both tax lawyers, heard about the John Radcliffe from senior midwife Ethel Burns who runs the hospital's delivery unit and often lectures in St Petersburg.

Before the birth, Mrs Bakharev said: "We wanted to do the best for our baby. "I have been in a Russian hospital three times and I saw pregnant women and how they gave birth - it was terrible and made me afraid."

She said women were given little choice of painkillers.

Mrs Bakharev decided to book into the John Radcliffe as a private patient for a cost of up to £2,500 after being impressed by the hospital's pioneering methods of childbirth.

The hospital offers massages, aromatherapy and the chance to give birth in a special pool.

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