The world’s smallest surviving prem baby has just been released from hospital

Posted in Birth.
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A baby thought to be the world’s tiniest surviving premature baby has been discharged from hospital after five months of life-saving expert TLC.

The world’s smallest baby

“We are proud to announce the birth of the world’s smallest baby ever to survive,” Sharp Mary Birch Hospital in San Diego, California announced on their Facebook page, sharing a video of this tiny bub.

Baby Saybie was what is known as a ‘micro-premmie’ or micro-preemie’. She was born at just 23 weeks gestation and was not expected to survive the day. But this tiny girl was a fighter. She defied all the worrying health consequences such little babies face, prompting the team that cared for her to declare her a “miracle”.

Meet Saybie: The World's Smallest Baby

We are proud to announce the birth of the world’s smallest baby ever to survive. Weighing only 8.6 ounces, Saybie was born at 23 weeks, 3 days’ gestation at Sharp Mary Birch in December 2018. After a nearly five-month stay in our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, she was discharged home this month as a healthy 5-pound infant. Watch how exceptional medical care and extraordinary love and support helped her survive. Learn more ➡️ http://spr.ly/6181EmXIU. #BabySaybie

Posted by Sharp Mary Birch Hospital for Women & Newborns on Wednesday, 29 May 2019

Saybie’s mother describes the day her baby was born as “the scariest day of my life”.

“I just felt very uncomfortable and I thought ‘maybe this is part of pregnancy’.”

But it wasn’t and she was quickly diagnosed with life-threatening preeclampsia. She had to deliver her baby via an emergency c-section at little over the halfway mark of a typical pregnancy.

“I’m only 23 weeks”

Choosing to remain anonymous Saybie’s mum recalls, “I kept telling them: ‘She’s not going to survive. I’m only 23 weeks.'”

But this very early delivery was necessary to save the mother’s life. Once she’d arrived, staff told Saybie’s parents their daughter – who weighed just 245 grams – had just hours to live.

Hospital staff said that when Saybie was born she was so small she could “fit in the palm of the hands of her care team”.

She was just “half of the weight of a normal 23-weeker”, the hospital said, but little did they know her size was no indication of her resilience.

“Some really have the strength to go through what they have to go through and grow outside the womb,” one staffer explained of these micro premmies.

Baby Saybie

Tiny fighter

Saybie was one of those strong and determined babies because five months after she was given just an hour to live, she was discharged weighing a healthy 2.5kg.

“Saybie experienced virtually none of the medical challenges typically associated with micro preemies, which can include brain bleeds, and lung and heart issues,” the hospital said, the BBC reports.

It’s not surprising that they’re calling this tiny little fighter a “miracle baby”. Fantastic work, medical team! And congratulations to her amazing family on their resilience – and their gorgeous baby girl – too. Having a premature baby is hard at the best of times, but this experience must have been next-level challenging.

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