BENGALURU, 9 NOV

In a heartwarming story from Tumakuru, pre-term twins were born prematurely at 23 weeks, each weighing around 500 grams and were saved in what is a highly skilful medical feat. This is the first ever lowest birth weight of premature twins recorded in the country.

The parents, who were part of a farming family, had been struggling to conceive for a long time before deciding to undergo fertility treatment. When the mother became pregnant with twins, the happiness of the family was short-lived as it was revealed that the mother had experienced a shortening of the cervix, leading to premature labour and the birth of the babies 17 weeks early.

The twins are part of the 0.3% of babies born with a birth weight of less than 600g worldwide, weighing 550g and 540g each. The babies were delivered at Aster Women and Children Hospital, Whitefield, and were later admitted to the NICU at the hospital for around three to four months for further care.

This case is striking if one takes into consideration data on preterm twins. While the survival rate of a singleton neonate (a single baby without a twin) born at 23 weeks is around 23.4 per cent worldwide, few such cases have been reported in India,  according to a medical journal. However, the survival of neonate twins at a gestational age of 23 weeks has never been observed or recorded before in the country. –ANI