For a baby to be considered as having a healthy weight at birth, it should weigh between 2.4kg and 3.9kg, doctors say.
In the case of Saybie, who has been described as the ‘World’s Tiniest Surviving Baby,’ she weighed a mere 0.2kg at birth, which is the weight of an apple, having been born at 23 weeks (a little after five months of pregnancy).
Indeed, doctors at a San Diego hospital where she was born gave her only one hour to live.
However, Saybie was healthy enough to go home with her parents after five months of intensive care at the Sharp Mary Birch Hospital for Women and Newborns, San Diego in California, USA.
Consequently, Saybie has been dubbed a ‘miracle’ for surviving when she was born so early.
Baby Saybie, who was born in December and weighed the same as an apple at only 0.243806kg, has been described as a “miracle.”
The newborn, who was named Saybie by her medical team, has now been discharged from Sharp Mary Birch Hospital for Women and Newborns weighing a healthy 2.5kg.
Saybie’s mother described the day she gave birth to Saybie as the ‘scariest day of her life.’ “I kept telling them she’s not going to survive, she’s only 23 weeks,” the now elated mother recalled.
Dr. Paul Wozniak, medical director for neonatal medicine at Sharp Healthcare, said: “The heartbeat was strong, over 100 beats per minute, and fortunately, we were able to get a breathing tube in.”
Saybie spent five months in the neonatal intensive care unit, and her ranking as the world’s smallest baby ever to survive is according to the Tiniest Baby Registry maintained by the University of Iowa.
A professor of paediatrics at the University of Iowa, Dr. Edward Bell, told Yahoo News that Saybie had the lowest medically confirmed birth weight submitted to the registry.
Experts note that premature babies are at greater risk of breathing problems, feeding problems and are more vulnerable to getting infections.
Babies born before 24 weeks, regarded as micro-preemies, experience more medical problems than babies born later, including brain bleeding and poor heart function, experts say.