An extremely premature baby, who weighed only 620 grams when she was born, has finally left the hospital after 105 days, making it home just in time for Christmas.
Baby Niyamat was born at only 23 weeks gestation. “We didn’t know that the babies could be born this early and they would survive, like we, I had no idea”, her mum, Anterpreet, said.
“Every day I left the hospital I told her that ‘one day I’ll take you with me”, she added.
The baby’s father, Harman, a lorry driver, worked during the night delivering milk, and would rush to the Neonatal Critical Care Unit at the hospital before morning to be with his daughter. Anterpreet would later travel to the hospital by bus and stay with Niyamat into the night. The couple repeated this routine every day for the first 100 days of their tiny baby’s life.
“We never say goodbye when we left her – we are here, we are just nearby you”, Anterpreet said.
Baby Niyamat finally got to go home just before Christmas, 105 days after she was born, and one day before her original due date.
“That was our Christmas Day – the day she came home – the biggest day of our lives”, her mother said.
Other families also experienced their own Christmas miracles
Baby Niyamat is not the only premmie home in time for Christmas. In 2023, Maddie Statler, mother to baby Evangeline, was experiencing what she considered to be an uneventful pregnancy when she woke up with back pain at 23 weeks gestation.
“I noticed that my stomach felt kind of tight and different and then I started having contractions later that day”, she said. “I was in denial though that I could be in labour because I was like, ‘I’m 23 weeks. There’s no way that I’m in labour right now.’ And then I had some bleeding later that evening and then that’s kind of what prompted us to go to the hospital”.
Evie was born via emergency caesarean section at 23 weeks and 5 days and weighed only 14 ounces.
Her father, Dylan, said the doctors had said that Evie had “less than [a] 50% chance of survival”.
But little Evie’s parents remained hopeful as their little girl cried when she was born. “Whenever we heard that she made a cry, that made us feel like you know, she definitely had some fight in her, and that was reassuring”, said Maddie.
Evie managed to survive despite the odds and was able to go home just one week before Christmas.
“It’s kind of symbolic”, Dylan said. “Because she’s kind of like a gift or a miracle baby”.
Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said “It’s wonderful to hear that these little babies have finally been able to go home after their gruelling hospital stays”.
“Having their babies home for the first time just before Christmas will surely make this an extra special time of year”.
