Pune: A premature baby girl named Shivanya born at 24 weeks (6 months) allegedly set a record to be the youngest and tiniest baby to survive such premature birth in India.
According to a report in TOI, Shivanya weighed just 400 grams at the time of her birth through vaginal delivery on May 21, 2022. Ideally babies born through a normal delivery after 37-40 weeks weigh around 2500 grams, but here this baby girl was born almost 14-16 weeks earlier and also weighed almost 6 times lesser.
Shivanya's premature birth was due to a congenital abnormality in her mother, called double uterus (bicornuate). This is when a woman has two separate pouches in the womb and one of the two sections (pouches), is found to be smaller than the other. As a foetus, Shivanya grew in the smaller one, leading to her birth at just 24 weeks.
The countless efforts by her doctors and country's developed newborn care are the aspects that ensured Shivanya's survival and growth after her very sensitive birth as the survival rate among such babies is as low as 0.5%.
Shivanya was discharged after a prolonged treatment in intensive care unit of 94 days on Aug 23, 2022. Her weight at the time of discharge was 2,130 grams. She was then going through her treatment further at her home in Wakad.
Although after over seven months of her birth, "Shivanya is all healthy weighing 4.5 kilograms and has a good food intake," said her father, who is an IT professional.
"Shivanya is the tiniest when we combine both pregnancy period as well as birth weight. There has been no recorded case of such an extremely preterm survival in India before," said treating doctor Dr Sachin Shah, chief neonatologist of Surya Mother and Child Hospital.
"We have sent some 400 extremely preterm babies home over the last 10 years, but Shivanya helped prove miracles are possible," added Dr Shah.
