A baby born weighing in at less than one pound in San Diego — the smallest recorded baby to survive — has gone home a healthy five-month-old infant.
Saybie, the name given to the baby by hospital staff, was born in December at 23 weeks and three days. She weighed a mere 8.6 ounces at birth, according to The Associated Press.
She now weighs about five pounds after spending just as many months in the neonatal intensive care unit.
During a press conference this week, a spokesperson for the hospital said, “After experiencing severe pregnancy complications, Saybie’s mother gave birth via emergency cesarean section at 23 weeks, 3 days gestation in the womb.”
“Doctors said the preterm birth was necessary after they found that the baby was not gaining weight and her mother’s life was at immediate risk,” the representative added.
It’s stunning now to see Saybie go home. When she was born, doctors told her father he could spend about an hour with her before she passed away.
Doctors said the “micropreemie” — infants born less than 28 weeks into pregnancy — experienced “virtually none” of the issues that typically accompany such births.
Saybie’s incredible story comes amid an intense culture-wide debate over abortion. In the last few weeks, states like Alabama and Georgia have passed stringent pro-life laws.
Other states, though, like New York and Virginia have this year enacted laws that codify abortion beyond 24 weeks of pregnancy in some situations, such as vague threats to the mother’s mental or physical wellbeing.