By Dave Andrusko
Whatever their motivations, many newspapers in Britain are mesmerized by babies who are born close to 24 weeks, the outermost limit (for the most part)at which unborn babies can be aborted. We’ve written dozens of stories based on accounts in the Daily Mail, the Sun, and the Telegraph.
Which brings us to Flynn Parry, one of Britain’s recent extreme preemies described as no bigger at birth than his mother’s hand. The Sun tells us Flynn “weighed just 1lb 1oz, the same as two hamsters, and was 11 inches long, much smaller than the average newborn length of 20 inches.”
The Daily Mail talks about Flynn as a “miracle baby who was born a week before the legal abortion limit of 24 weeks” and “believed to be one of Britain’s youngest ever premature children to survive.” Unity Blott writes
Flynn Parry, now 15 months old, arrived 17 weeks early weighing just 1lb 1oz when his mother Hoda Ali was just 23 weeks pregnant.
Photos of the newborn in hospital show he was barely as big as his proud mother’s hand at just 11 in long, half the size of the average newborn which measures around 20 inches.
His mom amusingly described her son as “just so, so small. I thought he looked like an alien or a baby bird.”
Born that early, Flynn faced an uphill battle. To recreate the warm of his mother’s womb, they swaddled him in bubble wrap as soon as he was delivered.
Of course when Hoda was rushed to the hospital doctors did their level best to delay Flynn’s arrival. Hoda was “given steroids to strengthen her cervix and magnesium sulphate to halt labour,” according to the Daily Mail’s Blott. “But, on February 13, 2016, after a 30-minute labour, her son arrived.” Her due date had been June 6.
His early arrival resulted in Flynn battling sepsis (“a potentially deadly form of blood poisoning”) and suffering two brain bleeds. There were other surgeries and other complications and it was not until Flynn was 10 weeks old that Hoda and his dad Owen were able to cuddle him.
Flynn went home June 16, 2016.
Even more good news. Blott writes, “Defying all odds, Flynn not only lived, he flourished – becoming a lively toddler, who now runs rings around his doting parents and has not experienced any developmental delays.”
Reflecting back, Hoda told Blott, “Walking out of hospital, we were so proud of our boy and everything he’d battled.
“Flynn brings hope to everyone with premature babies, currently in hospital. You can get through it.”