Babies Born At 22 Weeks Can Now Be Resuscitated

Oct 28, 2019

A recent announcement brought incredible news for premature babies. Doctors in the United Kingdom recently announced a change in the ‘viability’ guidelines that will bring about this change.

As of October 2019, babies that are born at 22 weeks will now be resuscitated following the change in these viability guidelines. Resuscitated is to revive from apparent death or unconsciousness, according to Merriam-Webster’s official definition.

At 22 weeks, these premature babies are highly under-developed. In fact, they are so under-developed that doctors had previously believed that it was best for the infant not to treat them and try to revive them. However, medical advances now give doctors the ability to save many of these premature infants can be saved as early as 22 weeks old. This is thanks to a review conducted by the British Association of Perinatal Medicine.

The review came after research found that four in 10 23-week old babies that were born and placed directly in the neonatal unit survived thanks to medical advances.

This number is an incredible advancement, doubled from 2008 when just two in 10 survived, according to the British Association of Perinatal Medicine (BAPM).

As far as the 22-week marker being established, the BAPM found that 35% of babies born at this amount of weeks can now survive if treated properly. Babies at this week typically weight around the same as a tin can of beans.

While doctors used to believe it wasn’t in the best interest to try and provide care for babies at 22 weeks, experts now believe that through greatly improved nutrition, utilizing steroids in a more effective manner, better infection control, and a more advanced, educated medical staff these strides in saving premature babies has been successful.

Dr. Helen Mactier is President of the British Association of Perinatal Medicine. She stated in the recent article in The Sun that she believes doctors have become better at keeping premature babies alive. She also said that doctors are simply more willing to take the survival of even the most extremely premature babies into consideration, whereas several years ago they wouldn’t have.

The newly-established guidelines specifically state that 22 weeks is the established time to consider treatment to save the premature baby’s life. However, the guidelines also say that the baby must have “favorable risk factors” to be considered, taking into consideration if they are a healthy weight for the 22 weeks and if they are toward the end of the 22nd week.

Here is the breakdown of statistics from births at the 22-week mark in the U.K.: 183 live births at 22 weeks in 2016. Of those 183 in the study, 23% received care and of that 23 %, 35% survived.

However, Professor Dominic Wilkinson, a professor at the University of Oxford that worked to focus on the premature baby study, warned that some of the babies delivered this early may, or likely will, end up developing disabilities simply due to how early they were delivered. Yet, he also added that in 2019 it is possible to save babies that couldn’t be saved before, and that their chances of developing disabilities are decreasing thanks to morning science and innovations in premature infant care.

What do you think about these medical advances? Do you believe in resuscitating babies at 22 weeks of age?Let us know in the comments - and make sure you pass this along to your friends and family!