• @otp@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    4122 hours ago

    Brain-dead since February. Can a healthy baby even be born in a situation like that?

    So much of prenatal care impacts the child. The birth weight, for instance, seems abnormally low

    • @dhork@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      3922 hours ago

      Smith’s mother told local news that the baby weighs 1 pound and 13 ounces and will require care in the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit.

      Yikes.

      Then again, if she was 9 weeks in when she was declared brain-dead, and that was February, it’s still only June. The baby was not much further than 25 weeks along. I know these neonatal doctors and nurses are miracle workers, but that may be asking too much.

      • @otp@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        715 hours ago

        Jeez. I missed that detail.

        If you just read the headline, you might even think this is reasonable. Hooray, we saved a baby!

        But then you look into the details and it just gets worse and worse. I’m afraid for what will happen to this child.

    • Alue42
      cake
      link
      fedilink
      1018 hours ago

      I am not a doctor, let alone a NICU doctor or OB, but I’ve been wondering this whole time, how much fetal development is based on the mother’s movement throughout the day and gravity’s impact on the fetus? Especially that early in development. This whole situation has been so awful to hear about.

      • @phdepressed@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        47 hours ago

        The baby is also severely brain damaged from the accident and unlikely to be any sort of normal. Like probably round the clock care to stay alive much less anything more complex per earlier reports. Was born at less than 2lb so its not even sure about survival yet.

      • @otp@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        416 hours ago

        Not just that, but other biological processes…and even sound. Babies recognize the sound of their mother’s voice from before they were born. And sounds from outside the womb (like language) too, IIRC.