World’s smallest baby – 9.45 ounces – now 7 pounds
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May 2019 – An infant in Tokyo, born in August 2018 via emergency C-section at just 24 weeks gestation, was finally released from Keio University Hospital on February 20. The baby’s official birthweight was 9.45 ounces, making him the smallest surviving baby boy in the world – a record previously held by a child born in Germany in 2009, weighing just 9.6 ounces.
Doctors determined the preterm birth was necessary when they discovered the baby was not gaining weight and his life was in danger. Since his birth he had been carefully monitored in the neonatal intensive care unit, where he had grown to just over seven pounds at the time of his discharge.
The physician who treated the tiny baby, Dr. Takeshi Arimitsu, said, “I want people to know that babies can return home vigorous even if they are born small.”
