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Teen gives birth to UK’s smallest premature baby: ‘The best thing to ever happen’
A 17-year-old mom has just given birth to what is believed to be the United Kingdom’s smallest premature baby. Little Hannah Stibbles was born in Glasgow, Scotland, on December 30, when her mom, Ellie Paton, was just 25 weeks pregnant. According to the Daily Mail, Hannah weighed just 11 ounces at birth.
Ellie delivered Hannah via emergency C-section after doctors discovered she had pre-eclampsia and the baby needed to be delivered immediately. She and her partner, Brandon Stibbles, were warned that their daughter had only a 20% chance of survival. “It was made very clear to us that there was no hope for her at all,” said Brandon. “They prepared us completely for the worst, telling us they would need to resuscitate her and then said they would focus on making sure Ellie was ok.”
Despite the dire warnings, Hannah was born breathing on her own. “As soon as she was born they took her to NICU but she didn’t need to be resuscitated so that gave us hope straight away. We knew she was a fighter,” Ellie told the Daily Record. Hannah is still in the NICU and is currently in an incubator wrapped in bubble wrap to help her stay warm.
While there are many instances of premature babies surviving even at 21 weeks, doctors warned that Hannah’s chances were slim due to her especially small size. “The high-up doctors were coming into the neonatal unit and saying ‘babies this size just don’t survive,'” explained Brandon. “Not at 25 weeks into pregnancy — babies should be 500 grams or more, Hannah was 325 grams.”
Since her birth, Hannah has put on at least 25 grams, and she thus far shows no signs of medical problems despite her prematurity. The Daily Record reports that all brain and heart scans have come back clear. “We are so proud of her. She came out fighting for her life and proved everyone wrong. She is a wee smasher,” Ellie said. The couple said baby Hannah is “the best thing to ever happen to us.”
Hannah’s extremely small size means that she is believed to be the smallest baby ever born and survived in the UK. According to the Daily Mail, the previous record-holder was Aaliyah Hart, who weighed 12 ounces when she was born in 2003. The world’s smallest surviving baby was a little boy born in Tokyo in 2019, weighing less than 10 ounces.
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Human Interest·By Bridget Sielicki
