Bianca Ruba | Opinion and Faith Editor
A baby who was born at just 23 weeks and given only a 1% chance of survival has confounded doctors by reaching eight months as a healthy baby. Kaci-Rose Cratchley was delivered in an emergency natural birth, weighing just 1lb and 2oz – half the weight of a bag of sugar!
According to the doctors, if mum Sadie had gone into labour one day earlier they would not even have attempted to save her baby girl, advising her “to let her go”. And even after Sadie went into labour, they cautioned the 20-year-old mother that there was a 99% chance the tiny tot would not survive during the delivery. At birth, Kaci-Rose was only the size of her mother’s hand and was put in a ventilator where she remained for 11 weeks to help her lungs develop. She was also given medication for her struggling kidneys.
However, defying all odds, Kaci-Rose is now 8 months old, weighs over 8lbs and is home with her mum and dad.
According to the UK’s 1967 Abortion Act, it is legal to abort pregnancies up to 24 weeks – 7 days older than Kaci-Rose when she was born – with current guidelines stating that doctors should neither resuscitate nor provide intensive care to babies born at 22 weeks or below. However, miracle stories like Kaci-Rose’s have raised awareness that with the proper ‘active treatment’ such as intubation and ventilation, there are more and more babies surviving the odds. This has led to professors and researchers stating that babies born at 22 weeks should now be considered viable and not disregarded due to former guidelines.
Pressure is now mounting on our political leaders to consider reducing the current abortion limits.
Pope Francis, who is currently touring the USA, has stood in defence of the unborn throughout his Papacy. He is hugely critical of our ‘throwaway’ culture and has commented, “Unfortunately, what is thrown away is not only food and dispensable objects, but often human beings themselves, who are discarded as unnecessary.”
