Baby Born At Just 8 Ounces Is World’s Smallest Baby

A baby girl, born at just 8 ounces and considered the world’s smallest baby, is making ‘giant’ leaps nine months later.

Meet baby Emilia Grabarczyk.

When Emilia was born, her entire foot was the size of a fingernail and she weighed no more than a capsicum.

Emilia was born in Witten, west Germany, measuring just 22 centimetres and weighing a mere eight ounces (approximately 227 grams). It was feared she would not survive, but as doctors treated her, she surprised everyone and is thriving – they have labelled her ‘the little fighter.’

Local reports say she is the lightest premature baby in the world to ever survive.

Nine months later, she now weighs 7lb 2 oz, which is a healthy weight for a newborn.

Dr Bahman Gharavi, head of children and youth clinic at St Mary’s hospital in Germany, said Emilia’s survival was miraculous.

“Even children with a birth weight of 14 ounces rarely survive. We have to thank Emilia as well for her own survival.

“She is a little fighter.

“For more than six months, it was unclear whether she would survive. Only in recent weeks she is getting more robust,” he said.

He thanked the joint effort of paediatricians, gynaecologists and paediatric surgeons – as well as Emilia – to make it possible.

Prof Dr Sven Schiermeier, chief physician of obstetrics, said that together with the baby’s parents, Lukas and Sabine Grabarczyk, they decided to deliver the baby via caesarean section at the start of the 26th week of pregnancy.

He said that the decision was made because otherwise, Emilia would have died in the womb, as there was a problem with the placenta and she was not getting the nutrition needed to survive.

Dr Gharavi explained complications including an increased risk of hyperactivity and learning difficulties. Normally, a foetus in the 26th week of pregnancy would have weighed around 21 ounces, however, the problem meant Emilia was underweight.

For Emilia’s parents, they decided to heed to the doctor’s advice and give Emilia a chance even if the odds for survival were low and even if it means her early arrival and low birth weight was followed by a period of uncertainty.

Thankfully, there are no signs of serious disability.

Emilia was initially fed with a tiny tube and nurses would use a cotton bud soaked in sugar water to settle her. She survived abdominal surgery at a weight of just 12 ounces.

Mrs Grabarczyk said: ‘There were many difficult days and many tears, but she clearly wanted to survive.’

The previous record is thought to be held by Rumaisa Rahman, who was eight inches long and weighed 8.6 ounces. She was born in the Loyola University Medical Centre in Chicago when her mother was 25 weeks pregnant.

Source: Dailymail.co.uk