The smallest baby in the world was born in California
SAN DIEGO — The world’s smallest baby has been released from a San Diego hospital after being born weighing just 8.6 ounces.
The baby, named Saybie, was born in December 2018 at 23 weeks and three days, making her a micro-preterm baby, according to officials at Shaghur Mary Birch Hospital. When she was released from the hospital this month, she weighed 5.6 pounds.
Doctors told the father that he would have about an hour with his daughter before he passed away. “But that hour turned into two hours that turned into a day, which turned into a week,” the mother said in a video released by the hospital. Doctors said Saybie was born via emergency caesarean section in December at 23 weeks and three days gestation in the second trimester after multiple pregnancies that put her mother’s life at risk.
A typical pregnancy lasts 40 weeks. After nearly five months in the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit, Saybie was released earlier this month at a healthy five pounds (2.2 kilograms) and wearing a graduation cap. “She’s a mother, that’s for sure,” said Kim Norby, one of the nurses who cared for Saybie as she tried to survive, a sign next to her crib reading “small but mighty” encouraging her.
Emma Wiest, another nurse, said Saybie was so small at birth that “you could barely see her in bed.”
At birth, it weighed as much as a child’s juice and could fit in the palm of its keepers’ hands.
“I heard we had such a small baby and it sounded amazing because I mean he is about half the normal weight of 23 underdog,” Wiest said.
Although Saybie did not have any of the medical symptoms typically associated with babies born before 28 weeks gestation, including lung, heart and bleeding, staff did not immediately. know if the baby would survive.
Saybie went home in mid-May 2019 as a “happy and healthy” 5-pound baby.
Saybie’s ranking as the world’s smallest surviving baby is according to the Registry of Smallest Babies, maintained by the University of Iowa. The previous record was held by a baby born in Germany in 2015 who weighed seven grams more than Saybie.
“Every life is a mystery, those that defy the odds even more so,” said Edward Bell, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Iowa who oversees the Registry.
Her status as the ѕᴜгⱱіⱱіпɡ newborn in the world comes from the Smallest Babies Registry, which is maintained by the University of Iowa. She weighed 7 grams less than the previous smallest baby, who was born in Germany in 2015, according to ѕһагр.