A little girl is breaking medical records as the first documented case of a premature baby surviving birth at 21 weeks and 4 days of gestation— nearly 19 weeks early.
Courtney Stensrud’s daughter, whose name has been withheld in the media in respect for her privacy, was born in July of 2014 in a San Antonia hospital, weighing less than a single pound. “It was shocking to see a living breathing person that small,” Stensrud recalled to TODAY.
Stensrud had experienced chorioamnionitis during her pregnancy, an infection of the placenta and amniotic fluid. Her membranes ruptured prematurely, ultimately inciting early labor at only 21 weeks. When the tiny infant was born, weighing only 14.5 ounces, doctors told the mother that she would not survive.
“But,” she told TODAY, “When I was holding a live baby in my arms, I just absolutely thought she could survive. I felt it in my heart.”
The doctor, Dr. Kaashif Ahamd with the Pediatrix Medical Group of San Antonio, had already told Stensrud that the baby likely would not survive, but still, the mother insisted they try to resuscitate her. “My answer was,” Ahmad recalled to TODAY, “‘If you would like us to try, then I’m absolutely happy to try’… knowing that there were no guarantees.”
Resuscitation of babies born this early is not recommended by the medical community; the American Academy of Pediatrics notes that these efforts “may be considered futile or not in the in the best interests of the child” because babies born this early don’t tend to survive without significant neurological consequences.
To everyone’s shock and surprise, however, when Stensrud’s daughter was put on the oxygen tank, she immediately started to respond. “She turned pink. Within a few minutes, she began to make efforts to breathe and then she began to move,” the doctor recalled.
Stensrud’s daughter spent 4 months in the hospital, finally being sent home 3 days before her original November due date. Now, three years later, she is thriving. “She’s happy, full of energy and full of life,” Stensrud told TODAY, noting the little girl has no medical issues or disabilities and is developing on track with her peers. “I feel blessed that we were giving this little miracle baby.”
When Stensrud went into such an early labor, she was convinced her daughter would not survive. After all, it had never been recorded in the medical literature.
Now, she says, “The reason I’m doing these interviews— it’s not for me, it’s not for my daughter. It’s for that mother in antepartum who is frantically searching online— that she will have a little bit of hope and faith that she can have the same outcome.”
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