by Pʀᴇᴍᴀᴛᴜʀᴇ Baby Born 18 Weeks Early Weighing 1 lb., 9 oz
Jimena “JC” Macias spent Thanksgiving with her family after she was born 18 weeks early, weighing 1 lb., 9 oz.
A Pʀᴇᴍᴀᴛᴜʀᴇ baby born 18 weeks early in Texas was ᴅɪsᴄʜᴀʀɢᴇᴅ from the hospital just in time to come home to her family for the holidays.
Jimena “JC” Macias weighed 1 lb., 9 oz., and measured 11 inches long when she was born on April 29, per KHOU 11. At the time, JC’s mom, Juana Gallegos, began to feel sɪᴄᴋ and later went into labor when she was just 22 weeks pregnant.
Gallegos said doctors told her “they weren’t going to be able to ʀᴇsᴜsᴄɪᴛᴀᴛᴇ her or be able to do anything for her if she was born there, at that time, that early.” To give her daughter the best possible chance, Gallegos went to Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Medical Center in Shenandoah, Texas.
While JC is no longer in the NICU, she is still ᴜɴᴅᴇʀɢᴏɪɴɢ ᴘʜʏsɪᴄᴀʟ ᴛʜᴇʀᴀᴘʏ, though doctors say the baby is right on track for all of her milestones. Pʀᴇᴍᴀᴛᴜʀᴇ babies are categorized as any baby born more than three weeks before their estimated due date, according to the Mayo Clinic. Pʀᴇᴍᴀᴛᴜʀᴇ babies, like JC, can have “complicated medical problems” and often “need a longer hospital stay in a special nursery unit at the hospital.”
Dr. Rebecca Ballard, a neonatologist with the Memorial Hermann/Pediatrix Medical Group of Texas, told KHOU 11 that JC is a “miraculous” case.
“While I wish this story would happen with every baby born this early, it’s not possible,” Ballard said. “Not to think her story represents every baby, but it makes it so much more miraculous that it happened.”
