The world’s smallest baby has returned home after defeating all odds.
The anonymous baby girl, nicknamed ‘Saybie’ by her nurses, was born at just 23 weeks – one week earlier than the legal limit for abortion in Britain.
Data indicates that Saybie is the world’s smallest surviving newborn, weighing just 8.6 ounces (245g) at birth.
‘Only 23 weeks’
When Saybie’s mum went for a regular check-up, doctors told her she had pre-eclampsia, a condition resulting in high blood pressure and birth complications.
Saybie was subsequently delivered by emergency C-section in San Diego, California.
Her mum said: “I kept telling them: ‘She’s not going to survive. I’m only 23 weeks’.
“It was the scariest day of my life.”
Smaller than expected
Dr Paul Wozniac, Medical Director at the hospital, said when Saybie was delivered, she was even smaller than doctors expected.
He said: “We tried to weigh her and nothing would record. We found out later, it didn’t record if the baby weighed less than 300 grams.”
Saybie’s mum recalls: “They told my husband he had about an hour with her and that she was going to pass away.
“But, that hour turned into two hours, which turned into a day, which turned into a week.”
Abortion
After five months in hospital, Saybie is now home with her family, weighing a healthy 5.6 pounds.
A study by The Journal of the American Medical Association found that the survival rates of premature babies in the US have increased by up to nine per cent in the last three decades.
In Britain, despite the fact that increasing numbers of premature babies survive, it is still legal to have an abortion for social reasons up to 24 weeks.