A California hospital on Wednesday disclosed the birth of the world’s smallest baby ever to survive, weighing a mere 245 grams (8.6 ounces) — the same as a large apple — when she was born.
The girl, nicknamed Saybie by hospital staff, was born 23 weeks and three days into her mother’s pregnancy at Sharp Mary Birch Hospital for Women and Newborns in San Diego.
The father was told by doctors that he would have about an hour with his daughter before she passed away.“But that hour turned into two hours which turned into a day, which turned into a week,” the mother says in a video released by the hospital.
Saybie was delivered via emergency cesarean section in December at 23 weeks and three days gestation in the womb after severe pregnancy complications that put her mother’s life at risk. A typical pregnancy lasts 40 weeks.
A nurse, Kim Norby, calls her a “miracle, that’s for sure. Tiny but mighty.”
Doctors said that apart from Saybie’s fighting spirit, her survival as a micro-preemie — a baby born before 28 weeks’ gestation — could be attributed to the fact that she suffered no serious complications after birth.
“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 says.
Saybie’s ranking as the world’s tiniest baby ever to survive is according to the Tiniest Babies Registry, 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.
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