arg, cluelessness about viability

[libelulle]

After months of just smiling sweetly when yet another person finds out my DS was born at 26 weeks and says 'oh, my friend's aunty's brother was born at 18 weeks in 1922 and was absolutely fine', I lost patience this morning. Someone in the park told me that their friend had a baby at 21 (!) weeks 20 years ago who is now fine and at university, and I said 'sorry I really don't think that is possible; even today they don't tend to resuscitate babies under 24 weeks'. And of course she got all huffy and I felt really rude.

I don't know why I care - I suppose it feels like it's attempting to minimise what we went through with our 26 weeker, and just really ignorant to boot - after all, these are other parents making statements like this, they should have at least a vague idea about when babies reach viability.

I understand, I get this all the time. Had one yesterday, "Oh my friends little girl, the one who was born at 24 weeks, you'd never guess, they're about to start school, running around...."

People mean well. I think they're trying to tell you not to worry, that everything will be okay. They weren't with you by the incubator, so they don't know.

Also, some people are just ignorant and don't pay too much attention to things like viability. I've made a point of explaining how vital the last three months of pregnancy is, which is ridiculous, because otherwise pregnancy would be 25 weeks instead of 40!