Taumarunui Baby Weighs Only 25 Ounces at Birth

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26958, 18 December 1948, Page 6

Taumarunui Baby Weighs Only 25 Ounces at Birth

Special to . the Daily Times NEW PLYMOUTH, Dec. 17. A premature baby weighing, only lib 9oz was born at the Taumarunui Hospital at about 6 pm. on Wednesday, and was still alive last night. For so small a baby to live for 24 hours is unusual, and if it continues to survive, stated a medical authority last night, it will be a remarkable tribute to the doctors and nurses responsible for its care.

* The baby is believed to have been born three months prematurely. Cases of the birth of premature babies weighing less than 21b have been reported in New Zealand and overseas before, and recently a child weighing lib lOoz at birth survived for some days in the South Island.

Overseas a case was recently reported in England of a baby, also born three months prematurely, which weighed lib 4oz at birth, and measured* only seven inches. This baby was kept wrapped in cotton wool in an oxygen tent.

Nevertheless, the authority explained, the birth of a baby after a 26-week pregnancy and weighing only lib 9oz, though not a record, is sufficiently rare to be remarkable, particularly so if the child survives.

The baby was still alive to-night. The birth was believed to have been premature by three months. The child is being fed with drops from a pipette.