Baby Sets World Record And Defies The Odds

A baby in England received less than a 10 percent chance to survive after being one of the most premature babies ever delivered. 

She nailed it. 

Imogen Stonehouse weighed only 1lb, 1oz, when she was born on September 6 at Singleton Hospital in Swansea. Now, after a six-month stay in the hospital, she’s on her way home. 

Her mother Rachel Stonehouse, 28, told BBC: “Imogen has gone through so much and more than we will ever go through in our lifetime and she smashed it.”

Rachel initially went to Bridgend’s Princess of Wales Hospital, just days after the gender reveal party for Imogen, with a bleed before her waters broke and she and her partner Corey were taken by ambulance to Singleton Hospital.

“It was so scary,” she said.

“The pain was horrendous… I just went into survival mode for me and my baby and tried to just keep breathing through the pain.”

Rachel said seeing her new, tiny baby in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), and taking in her extremely fragile and translucent image was “like an out-of-body experience”.

She said she remembered thinking: “This baby should be in my stomach but she’s not. This foetus is now my baby in front of me and I now have to trust all these people around me.”

Imogen was born merely 11 days after the world record holder for earliest premature baby to survive, Curtis Means from Alabama. 

As fireworks filled the Fourth of July night sky, Michelle Butler went into labor at only 21 weeks and one day gestation. She raced to her local hospital and was soon transferred to UAB Hospital, where she gave birth to premature twins, Curtis and C’Asya, around 1 p.m. on July 5, 2020.

The RNICU team jumped into action. Nurses started post-birth care, and respiratory therapists quickly hooked them up to ventilators and oxygen, all hoping to increase the babies’ chances of survival. C’Asya soon showed signs she was too premature. She passed away a day later. 

Curtis, however, showed signs of improvement. His heart rate and oxygen levels increased with resuscitation and additional oxygen. He was fighting for life,” wrote the University of Alabama-Birmingham.

Like Imogen, Curtis spent six months in the hospital before going home. “Six months after Curtis’ discharge,” the university continued, “his care team gathered outside the UAB Women and Infants Center, where he was born. There they surprised Butler and Curtis with an important certificate that read:  

Guinness World Records – The most premature baby to survive is Curtis Zy-Keith Means (U.S.A.) who was born to Michelle Butler on July 5 2020 at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital in Alabama, U.S.A. at a gestational age of 21 weeks 1 day or 148 days, making him 132 days premature.” 

So far, things are looking good for both Curtis and Imogen. We know they’ll be ready for anything life throws at them. They’ve been showing toughness from the start.

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