A premature baby born weighing just 2lbs and small enough to fit his mum’s wedding ring around his hand is now a thriving two year old.
Kate, a mum from Southampton, already had five children when she found out she was pregnant in May 2020 with baby Reggie. Everything was going as it should until November when she was a little over six months pregnant.
Kate was 26 weeks pregnant and watching TV on a normal evening in November when she suddenly started experiencing unusual pain. Kate and her husband, Matt, left for the hospital at 6.30pm but within 10 minutes she started to experience contractions. They phoned ahead and a large team of medics was waiting for them when they arrived at the hospital.
Doctors struggled to find her baby’s heartbeat as they put Kate under general anaesthetic. When she awoke two hours later she learned that her baby was alive but in intensive care.
Kate went to visit her son Reggie while he was in an incubator and on antibiotics for sepsis, which he contracted in the womb and may have led to the early labour.
“It’s beyond everything you imagine it would be”, she said. “He was like a bird just emerged from its egg, and his skin was see-through so all his little bones were visible”.
“I was so frightened to see him, because I loved him so much but was so scared of losing him”, she continued. “They said his chances of survival were less than 10 percent. I was in shock and petrified—nothing prepares you for how vulnerable they are”.
“In a few hours, I’d gone from watching TV to having a critically ill baby on life support”.
At six weeks old, his lungs collapsed and he experienced multiple infections. But despite all the setbacks, he kept growing and he was moved into a different cot at seven weeks. He even had laser eye surgery for his detached retinas.
Incredibly, he went home on his original due date in March 2021 and even though he has to use an oxygen tank, it hasn’t prevented him from growing into a happy thriving two year old.
Right To Life UK spokesperson Catherine Robinson said “Babies are now regularly born before or shortly after the abortion limit in the UK and go on to survive. Continual advances in medical technology present a persistent challenge to supporters of abortion.”