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"about the size of a palm." huang wei used this sentence to describe rourou. it was the first time she saw this child who had only been in her belly for 21 weeks and 4 days.

when rourou was born, his skin was blue and almost transparent, he had no independent breathing or movement, and weighed only 450 grams, less than the weight of a bottle of mineral water. what's more troublesome is that his gestational age was too young.

a newborn baby is about the size of a palm (photo provided by the interviewee)

21 weeks + 4 days, what does this mean? normal pregnant women carry their babies for 10 months, but rourou is only 5 months old, 19 weeks earlier than the full-term birth. previously, there was no record of a 21-week premature baby surviving in china, and the youngest surviving premature baby worldwide was 21 weeks + 1 day.

can such a newborn survive? how can it overcome the difficulties that may arise in the future, such as anti-infection and intracranial hemorrhage? at that time, not only huang wei, but all the medical staff present were unsure. "but i want to say, don't give up. maybe the child sensed danger in the belly, so he came to this world early to continue to 'fight monsters' with us."

love can make flesh and blood grow wildly. as huang wei firmly believes, under the careful care of her and the medical staff, rourou has grown up safely and healthily, and this has also created a record for the youngest surviving extremely premature baby in the country.

almost everyone advised her to give up the child.

"the moment i saw the child for the first time, i was happy, but also mixed with self-blame. i always felt that it was because of us that the child came into this world early and suffered." at 18:56 on october 22, 2023, huang wei gave birth to rourou at shenzhen women's and children's health hospital, with mixed feelings.

meat in the incubator (photo provided by the interviewee)

after six years of marriage, huang wei had not been able to realize her wish of becoming a mother. she finally chose to undergo assisted reproduction and successfully became pregnant.

the family was originally immersed in the joy of the coming of a new life, but in mid-october 2023, when huang wei was about 20 weeks pregnant, she suddenly felt lower abdominal pain. examination at the local hospital showed that her cervical canal was short, accompanied by intrauterine infection, and there was a risk of premature birth at any time.

the doctor told huang wei that there was no record of such a young gestational age child surviving in china, and even in foreign countries, there were only a handful of records, and the chance of the child surviving was "close to zero." in addition, the mother's intrauterine infection index was high, and if she wanted to continue to preserve the fetus, both the mother and the child might not survive.

at that time, almost everyone advised huang wei to give up. "but i didn't want to give up because i could always feel his fetal movement. i wanted to give the child a chance, and myself a chance," huang wei said.

huang wei finally got to touch meat (photo provided by the interviewee)

the life and death moment of the youngest extremely premature infant

when rourou was just born, his vital signs were very weak. he couldn't breathe on his own. his skin was as thick as jelly, his eye slits had not yet opened, his mouth was only the size of a soybean, and his thighs were as thick as an adult's fingers.

the first step is to restore rourou's breathing. however, performing cpr on his thin skin can damage it, leading to bleeding, bruises or infection. rourou's cerebral blood vessels are also fragile. if cpr is not performed properly, blood pressure fluctuates and cerebral blood vessels may rupture at any time, causing severe intracranial hemorrhage, which may leave sequelae such as intellectual impairment.

the medical staff seized the golden rescue time of one hour and immediately transferred him to the preheated resuscitation table. they completed a series of operations in the shortest possible time - keeping him warm, covering him with a film, putting on a cap, adjusting his body position, connecting him to an ecg monitor...

afterwards, rourou finally recovered his vital signs and was transferred to an incubator that had been prepared in advance. huang wei told reporters, "rourou stayed in the hospital for 143 days and used a ventilator for 124 days. i couldn't see him for the first 100 days after he was born. i could only see the two videos the hospital sent out every week. it wasn't until he was 101 days old that i saw him for the first time. i put him in the 'kangaroo hold' and carefully placed him on my chest to feel his heartbeat."

it was also during this meeting that huang wei decided to name her child "rou rou". "it was not easy for him to grow from less than one pound to the chubby one he is now. i also want him to have more flesh."

huang wei feeds rourou milk (photo provided by the interviewee)

"every day i am filled with tension and anxiety, worrying that i will receive a call that my child is critically ill in the next second." huang wei loves rourou deeply and delivers breast milk to rourou almost every day. "it is said that breast milk is the best food for children and can also increase their survival rate. i rented a house next to the hospital and delivered the bottles of breast milk there, sometimes once a day, sometimes twice a day."

believe that there are miracles in life

on march 13, 2024, rourou grew from 450g at birth to 4000g. he finally "graduated" from the nicu, was successfully discharged from the hospital, and reunited with his family.

director yang chuanzhong of the neonatal department said that the successful treatment of rourou was inseparable from the previous experience of treating many 22-week premature babies and the hard work of every medical staff member, which also gave the neonatal medical staff the confidence to create more miracles.

of course, the happiest and most excited person is huang wei. "in fact, during the entire treatment, rourou did very well and his condition was relatively stable. he did get sepsis once during the treatment. he also met a good doctor, so the problem was not serious. after he was discharged from the hospital, we went to the hospital for follow-up every month. premature babies may not keep up with their development in all aspects and have weaker immunity, so they must be taken care of more carefully."

rourou is growing slowly (photo provided by the interviewee)

rourou, who used to be as weak as a kitten, is now growing up slowly and even a little naughty. everything in front of her made huang wei believe in the miracle of life again. she recorded rourou's daily life in videos and posted them online: "because i experienced premature birth and know how anxious it is to wait, i want to use short videos to let them see that a child born at 21 weeks can survive so bravely, and also encourage more mothers to believe in their children."

(in order to protect the privacy of the interviewee, "huang wei" in this article is a pseudonym)