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Baby born at 26 weeks spends first Christmas in hospital

A baby born at 26 weeks in New Zealand, will be spending his first Christmas in hospital with his parents.

Amon Zare Josiah de Dios was born in a hospital in Wellington after his mother experienced pre-eclampsia during her second trimester. Amon was born extremely early weighing only 500g.

“We are actually taking him as a miracle baby, because the midwife said because of the shape of my uterus it’s hard for me to conceive”, his mother, Divine, said.

Amon’s mother and father were told that he had a low chance of survival and doctors were expecting to have to resuscitate him at birth. Instead, they heard his loud cries and were thrilled. Unfortunately, one of the vessels in his heart was open and he needed medicine.

Not the Christmas we were expecting

He’s now on an oxygen machine and has a gastric feeding tube, but he’s putting on weight – at 30 weeks and five days he weighed 789g.

Amon’s parents are staying at the Ronald McDonald House across the road from the hospital where their son is being looked after and are able to visit him four or five times a day.

Her sister and mother will spend Christmas day with the couple.

“This is not the Christmas we were expecting, but we are still thankful”.

Only two weeks after the abortion time limit in England, Wales and Scotland

Amon was born at 26 weeks which is only two weeks after the legal abortion limit in England,Wales and Scotland. Some babies are born even more prematurely than that and go on to survive.

Despite more and more accounts of babies being born and surviving outside of their mother’s womb at an earlier and earlier stage, the abortion limit remains at 24 weeks gestation and all the way up to birth for babies with disabilities.

Right To Life UK spokesperson, Catherine Robinson, said:

“This is yet another wonderful story about a baby born around or just after the abortion limit who has gone on to thrive. While Amon was offered all the medical help and technology that New Zealand had to offer, sadly there are many babies at a similar gestational age whose lives are intentionally ended through medical technology also. When will our politicians wake up and see the contradiction?”

Dear reader,

You may be surprised to learn that our 24-week abortion time limit is out of line with the majority of European Union countries, where the most common time limit for abortion on demand or on broad social grounds is 12 weeks gestation.

The latest guidance from the British Association of Perinatal Medicine enables doctors to intervene to save premature babies from 22 weeks. The latest research indicates that a significant number of babies born at 22 weeks gestation can survive outside the womb, and this number increases with proactive perinatal care.

This leaves a real contradiction in British law. In one room of a hospital, doctors could be working to save a baby born alive at 23 weeks whilst, in another room of that same hospital, a doctor could perform an abortion that would end the life of a baby at the same age.

The majority of the British population support reducing the time limit. Polling has shown that 70% of British women favour a reduction in the time limit from 24 weeks to 20 weeks or below.

Please click the button below to sign the petition to the Prime Minister, asking him to do everything in his power to reduce the abortion time limit.