Can this be true

Specialties NICU

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Someone has claimed that they know of a 20 weeker (not a typo), that was in NICU when their own child was there. They claimed the baby was 1 pound (which is double the weight of a 20 week gestation baby) and that it spent 4-5 months in NICU before going home!

I would like to believe it but know that if it was true - it would have been splashed all over the newpapers and news. Have you ever heard of a 20 weeker surviving?

i once assisted (in the ER - which was a hospital w/o L&D) in the delivery of a 18-20 wker...she did live for 16 hrs but later died at hopkins ....but it was the most amazing thing i ever saw. her skin was nearly transparent..and she was the size of my hand (i am a 5'6" woman who at that time weighed approx 110lbs...) it was something i will never forget.

the reason i say 18-20 is because the mom kept vascillating on when exactly the last period was...

Amazing~ she lived that long breathing on her own??

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That's the thing. A lot of dates, even by u/s, are off. I just hate these stories because I know how much heartache they create when parents believe them. Even 24 weekers have horrible outcome rates, but we routinely have parents at 23 or even 22 who think their child will be a miracle baby. Then I get to torture it for its short life and the parents are shocked when it does die and threaten to sue because it must be our fault ("cause THAT woman had a 20 weeker that survived!").....

Me too. That's why I try to interject whenever someone makes false or inaccurate statements about prematurity on the expecting moms bulletin boards. I don't want anyone getting the impression that 20, 21, 22, even 23 weeks is a survivable gestation. There is plenty of information out there, if people would just take the time to research it. But there will always be inaccurate/untrue stories and people who believe them, despite the abundance of contradictory factual evidence . I don't know how you deal with it.

Wen

preemie mom and NICU-nurse fan :kiss

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I read Kellie Christine's website and I had to just stop reading. So many parents hear about the occasional baby born at 22 weeks and survives, but at what expense? I'm not talking about financial, but this girl is 4 years old and she is developmentally a 15 month old. I hate to be pesimistic but the chances for her to have a normal life are quite small. Then parents assume that the doctors and nurses with all their miraculous equipment can save these babies. That's not how it turns out usually when a baby is born at

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so, if someone is 5 months pregnant, they are not 20 weeks pregnant..they are 24 weeks? educate me :stone why did i never connect this? my common sense must have been off..t

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Specializes in NICU.
so, if someone is 5 months pregnant, they are not 20 weeks pregnant..they are 24 weeks? educate me :stone why did i never connect this? my common sense must have been off..t

Well, they say pregnancy is 9 months, but 9 times 4 weeks per month equals 36 weeks, which of course is not full term. So you have 40 weeks in roughly 9 months, because all months but February have more than 28 days so you can't just multiply weeks here. If you go to a calendar and actually count the days, when someone hits 5 months it's actually 150-something days, or about 22 weeks. And that's at the beginning of the 5-month mark, so someone 5-1/2 months along is about 24 weeks.

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Specializes in NICU.
I read Kellie Christine's website and I had to just stop reading. So many parents hear about the occasional baby born at 22 weeks and survives, but at what expense? I'm not talking about financial, but this girl is 4 years old and she is developmentally a 15 month old. I hate to be pesimistic but the chances for her to have a normal life are quite small. Then parents assume that the doctors and nurses with all their miraculous equipment can save these babies. That's not how it turns out usually when a baby is born at

I agree, it was hard to read her website. She's a gorgeous, I mean REALLY gorgeous little girl. But it's so upsetting that she's so delayed physically and mentally. Even when parents of 22-25 weekers say that they understand that their baby might never walk, talk, hear, or see, but still want us to do everything...it's still so hard ethically because you know it's going to be such a hard road, harder than the parents dare to think. :o

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I work at a specialty hospital (8500 babies a year- that's all we do) that has had survivors at 22+ weeks- there have been 3 of them in the six years I have worked there that I know about. None of them are "healthy". Our smallest was something like 385 grams, but around 27-28 weeks and did well.

I also have a healthy 6 year old x 23.5 weeker myself, so I'm definately conflicted on the issue.

I was denied a DNR for him upon delivery because of his weight (policy is 24 weeks AND/OR 500 grams, and he was closer to 700 grams. I am sure of his dates.).

I know that 22 weeks is possible because I have seen it, if only rarely (but, again, no healthy ones), but think most babies claimed in the 22 week and less range are date errors or layman misunderstandings.

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