Posted on 11/08/2013 7:02:39 AM PST by GonzoII
Alexis Clarke weighed just 11 ounces at birth — smaller than a can of soda. That was six months ago, when she was delivered at UCSD Medical Center at just 25 weeks. The smallest baby ever born at the medical center, Alexis is only now finally able to head home.
After months of medical care, Alexis is now bigger and healthier — and her family has supported her each and every day.
The U.S. Senate saw the introduction of a bill today that will protect babies like Aleixs from abortions. It would ban abortions on unborn children starting at 20 weeks – just five weeks ahead of when Alexis was born.
A local news report has more on this beautiful little girl:
“She was 11 ounces. So, she was 340-grams,” mother Laurie Clarke said, holding up the palm of her hand to describe just how small her little girl was at birth. “[She was] smaller than a can of soda. But when I got to see her, she was just our baby angel.”
Alexis was born three-and-a-half months early. According to her mother, doctors had to deliver Alexis early due to complications stemming from an under-developed placenta.
At Alexis’ small size, Clarke said her baby’s odds of survival were low – less than 25 percent. Given survival, doctors told Alexis’ family that her odds of significant and permanent complications were high.
For the first-time mother, watching her baby spend several months in an incubator meant an almost unbearable wait to just hold her child, and wonder what went wrong with the pregnancy.
“Honestly, it was a lot of, ‘What did I do wrong?’” said Clarke between tears. “Hearing that it wasn’t anything that I did definitely helped.”
According to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), babies born at 28 weeks or later survive 90 percent of the time.
Babies born between 24 and 27 weeks – as in Alexis’ case – survive 80 percent of the time.
CLICK LIKE IF YOU’RE PRO-LIFE!
Despite the precarious odds, Alexis, her parents and UCSD medical staff fought for her survival. For the first few months, Clarke said the situation was very much touch-and-go. Immediately, the baby was placed in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at UCSD Medical Center, surrounded by nurses and doctors tending to her 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
If all goes according to plan, Clarke said her little girl will be released from the hospital and headed home for the first time ever by Thanksgiving.
“We have something definitely huge to be thankful for,” said Clarke.
"Babies born between 24 and 27 weeks – as in Alexis’ case – survive 80 percent of the time."
12 fluid ounces vs. 12 ounces of weight are two different measures.
I know someone from my past that had a abortion at 5 months, it is hard for me to think of her as anything but a murder at this point. Actually, in thinking back I am one of the few women of my era who did not have one.
What is a soda head?
He wouldn’t survive the Death Panel.
de Blasio is deeply disappointed.
Of course a physician or nurse working with preemies might need to set me straight because,although I *did* stay at a Holiday Inn last night I have no formal training in the field.
A liberal would murder this baby.
“12 fluid ounces vs. 12 ounces of weight are two different measures.”
Exactly what I was thinking. No clue about what a can of soda weighs.
I have two daughters, both born at 28 weeks.
Both graduated top of their classes in HS, both national merit scholars, both top athletes, and both magna cum laude grads undergrad.
Both went to grad school.
One is a veterinarian, the other is a medical doctor who wishes she was a veterinarian.
So much for “future” for these kids huh?
Congrats!
A fluid ounce of water weighs very slightly more than one ounce dry weight. 1.043. Close enough.
I had my children many years ago so I haven’t seen a sonogram in quite a while, but recently saw one of a 17 week BABY (not fetus) and I was just shocked! That tiny head was perfectly formed - you could not make out all of the limbs/fingers,etc but there was absolutely no doubt it was a baby. No wonder the baby murderers don’t want to have to see a sonogram before killing their child!
God bless these parents and their child.
God will reward them greatly.
“A pint’s a pound the world around.” unless you are measuring mercury, I suppose.
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