One of the smallest babies to survive heads home from hospital

A photo from around the world this week that caught my eye was of a premature baby in a Melbourne newspaper. Anything to do with premature babies catches my eye.

The photo from the Melbourne’s Herald Sun newspaper shows baby John ready for home after 165 days in hospital. John was born at 26 weeks and is one of the smallest babies to survive in Australia, weighting just 395g at birth – the weight of a can of Coke.

Article

According to the Herald Sun article, the average weight of babies born on the cusp of life and death, at 24 weeks’ gestation, is 588g.

Our daughter, Elsie, was born ‘on the cusp of life and death, at 24 weeks gestation’, and she was above average in weight, tipping the scales a tablespoon of butter heavier than  average, at 634g.

The photo hit a nerve for me because I remember all the emotions that came with taking that baby home. A baby who has survived with the aid of professionals and technology, a full-time nurse by her side for the first four months of her life, and here I was driving away from all that safety, security and reassurance with her in the backseat.

I strapped her into the new carseat and from where I sat in the driver’s side, I couldn’t even see her – it looked like an empty seat. And yes, I stopped a couple of times during the 1.5 hour drive home to check that she hadn’t pulled her oxygen tube out, but also just to check that she was in there.

You can read more about Elsie’s early arrival here.

I wish little John a happy and healthy life.

Today’s prompt in I’m Blogging Every Day in May! with Clairey Hewitt is ‘Your favourite photo of the week from around the world.’ And can you believe of all the photos on our phones and around the world, that Claire and I have chosen the same one?!