• Question: When your pregnant the baby can come early. But how early can the baby come and still survive?

    Asked by jess14 to Gemma on 20 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Gemma Sharp

      Gemma Sharp answered on 20 Jun 2011:

      Brilliant question, thanks 🙂

      Well if a baby is born at 24 weeks (that’s about four months early!), it might be able to survive in intensive care. The chances of the baby being brain damaged or having some other developmental delays are really high though, and they’ll spend the first few months of their lives in the hospital hooked up to loads of machines.

      The earliest premature birth was apparently at 21 weeks and 6 days. It must’ve been absolutely tiny. I’m not sure when this baby was born, but check out how small its feet are, it must have been really premature:

      In general, the ealier a baby is born, the higher the chance that they will die or have serious health problems for the rest of their lives.

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