A little girl born weighing less than a small block of butter is being hailed as the smallest surviving premature baby.
Emilia Grabarczyk was born via caesarean section at 25 weeks in the western German city of Witten. She was 22cm long and weighed just 229 grams. Her feet were less than 3cm long.
The miracle bub is now nine months old, weighs in at 3.23kg and, reports say, is getting stronger with each passing day
Dr Bahman Gharavi, Head of Children and Youth Clinic at the hospital where she was born said the Emilia’s birth was truly unique, adding that her survival was only possible thanks to the joint effort of paediatricians, gynaecologists and paediatric surgeons.
“Even children with a birth weight of 14 ounces (400g) rarely survive. We have to thank Emilia as well for her own survival,” he said. “She is a little fighter.”
He said that for more than six months, it was unclear whether she would survive. “Only in recent weeks she is getting more robust.”
Emilia’s mother Sabine was advised to deliver early because the placenta that was nourishing her unborn baby was starting to fail. Without a caesarean, Emilia would have died before birth. As it was even when Emilia was born she was dramatically underweight for 25 weeks gestation. Dr Gharavi said a healthy baby born at this time would have weighed almost 600 grams.
Sabine and Emilia’s dad Luke have also talked about the early days. “There were many difficult days and many tears, but she clearly wanted to survive,” Sabine said.
