At how many weeks old can a pre-mature baby survive?

[Rochwen]

Just out of interest, at how many weeks can a pre-mature baby safely survive without too much damage later on? In the books they say 24/25 weeks but that seems awfully young, esp if you read babies at 34 weeks still having to go into an incubator. So, what's a safe age for a baby to be born?

THey are viable at that age but that doesn't mean they won't need support to survicve. If we are talking about an absolutely safe age to be born it will be the 40th week?

I think I read somewhere that 30 wks has 90% survival rate. Not exactly sure of what the earliest age is. I still think there is a slight risk for any stage before 37 weeks.

I'm sure there will be some info on web somewhere

I have had 3 babies early, 35, 33 and 31 weekers, Ds and Dd1 (the 35 and 31 weekers who have brain damage) and Dd1 went into an incubator for 4 weeks, Dd2 (the 33 weeker) was in an incubator for about 2 weeks, generaly babies born below 4 lb have to go into incubators because hey can't reglate their temparture

I think the earlist baby to survive was about 21 weeks

My cousin's wife gave birth at 24 weeks (19 years ago). There were complications after the birth where the baby was given too much oxygen and he's blind and has some damage to the brain. If they hadn't messed up the oxygen there wouldn't have been the damage.

i think the earliest is 22 weeks. having said that you can legally have an abortion till 23 weeks. i know some hospitals have a policy of not trying to keep a baby alive if they weigh less than 500 grams. which is just a pound.
full term pregnancy isnt considered till the 37th week

Like pixiefish my nephew was born at 24 weeks, 21 years ago now. he is blind from too much oxygen (they are able to measure it much better these days) but otherwise he is a fit & healthy young man.

My dh has a lot to say on this subject - he thinks that people's expectations have been raised too high (ie to expect that a very prem. baby is going to survive with no problems). I think that a very large majority of the very early babies that survive have major problems.

(but of course some are fine, I am not saying that very premature babies should not be treated or anything of course!!)

I read that a baby born at 24 weeks has a 39% chance of survival. I don't know how many of those have on-going problems.

DH is a clinical negligence lawyer so sees a lot of the worse cases I should imagine, however he did once tell me the stats on it, I will try and find out from him...

I almost had a 28 weeker, but held on until 31 weeks. At 28 weeks there is a 70% chance of survival, but there may be damage. Lungs do not fully mature until 32 weeks, so you are likely to have oxygen issues before then.....

I'm 24 weeks pregnant now and crossing my legs....I'll feel happier post 30 weeks as I am then in 'know what to expect' country......

We were told by the Drs that if we were black and were having girls they were the best survivors

We are white and had DT boys @ 27 weeks

In the NNU there was a little black girl who had been born @ 23 weeks and she went home while we were there She had been in unit until around her original EDD. IYSWIM

I had bleeding and spotting from 24 weeks so there was always the chance I would "go early". My obstretician told me if I could "hang on" (how? cross my legs?) to 28 weeks the baby had a much better chance of survival, he said at 32 weeks they all do fine.

my cousin was 27 wks when she had emergency cs due to pre-eclampsia - her dd is on the smallish side but perfectly fine and is now 19 mths.

when my twins were in NICU there was a young girl there with twins born at 24 weeks, they were 15 weeks old at this time and thriving well, apart from one of them had something wrong with his eyes and needed an op.