A mother from Birmingham was told her daughter Maysa had a 7% chance of survival and was offered an abortion as she went into early labour.
Kamilah Hussain, a full-time carer from Birmingham, said her pregnancy was perfectly normal before she began to bleed and had to go to the hospital.
“They told me I was 2cm dilated and she [baby Maysa] had a 7% survival rate. The doctors kept asking me if we were sure we wanted to continue with the pregnancy”.
There was no question for Kamilah and her husband, Atif Hussain, 27, a department manager. They were both so happy to discover the pregnancy in January.
“I remember when they told me the survival rate, and I just thought how I can’t lose her. We really tried with this pregnancy, in my head I was so upset and I just couldn’t lose her”, recalled Kamilah.
Baby Maysa fights to make it
Maysa was born at 10.30am on 2 June 2021, at just 22 weeks. Her Mum was able to cuddle her for five minutes before she was rushed to the NICU.
Because she was so premature, she had to spend three months in the NICU, after which Maysa was transferred to Birmingham Children’s Hospital on 12 September. She had to use a breathing tube for the time she spent in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, and a further seven months afterwards on the ward.
“We didn’t know she would pull through or how long she would last. Since she was born we took it one day at a time. We never looked into the future and never gave ourselves that hope”, explained her Mum.
While in the hospital in Birmingham, Maysa suffered a series of complications. Maysa caught influenza, and due to her breathing tubes dislodging, had three cardiac arrests. The illness caused an infection in her gut, and her parents were told to say their goodbyes as her doctors took her away for emergency surgery.
“We went off into town to distract ourselves but even then all we could think about was her. We were waiting for that dreaded phone call to tell us she didn’t make it”.
Fortunately, her parents never received that call. Defying all the odds, little Maysa continued to improve and her parents were able to take her home on 12 September, after 15 months in hospital.
“It was an amazing feeling, in my head I always said I would take it one day at a time but I always looked forward to taking her home”, said Kamilah.
“At one point I didn’t think I would ever be able to take her home. Since she has been home she has been thriving. She is a little diva, honestly, everyone loves her and she makes people smile”.
Premature babies are now surviving and flourishing
In the study published in 2022 by Dr Edward F Bell of the University of Iowa, ‘Mortality, In Hospital Morbidity, Care practices, and 2-Year Outcomes for Extremely Preterm Infants in the US, 2013-2018’, it was found that the baby survival rates improved a lot.
From 2013 to 2018, with infants born between 22 and 28 weeks gestation, “survival to discharge occurred in 78.3% and was significantly improved compared with a historical rate of 76.0% among infants born in 2008-2012”.
The study analysed the results of 10,877 infants born between 22 and 28 weeks gestation among 19 academic centres across the US.
This means that four out of five extremely prematurely born babies survived and were able to be assessed at 22-26 months corrected age (22-26 months from their due date) for a number of health and functional outcomes.
Right To Life UK spokesperson, Catherine Robinson, said “Seeing these little babies doing so well is a sign of hope for all of us. Sadly, our barbaric abortion laws still permit babies at the same gestational age as Maysa when she was born to be aborted. Medical advances continue to highlight just how backwards the abortion law in the UK is”.
