At just 600 gms, she fought and survived

bangalore: the baby weighed only 600 grams when she was born in a bangalore hospital four weeks ago. the doctors lost hopes, but it has survived since and has grown and today weighs 740 grams. born to ancy (22) and joseph (25) at the st. philomena's hospital, the baby was born when it was still at the gestation stage of 26 weeks, which is about six-and-a-half months.a normal baby has a gestation period of 40 weeks. in this case, the baby was born after the mother went into pre-mature labour, doctors said. the baby was kept in an incubator for 20 days. but now the baby is doing well and is ready to be discharged, says dr ahmed khan, who took care of the baby since its birth at the hospital. the mother is feeding the baby. ``when the baby was born, we had to give it oxygen, anti-biotics and iv fluids. we gave the baby supportive management.'' on day three, the baby was fed with breast milk through a thin tube that was inserted into the mouth. initially, one ml of milk was given, the next day two ml and the next day three ml. after reaching 11 ml milk intake, the baby was then exposed to direct breast feeding. now the baby is in a cradle with a spot lamp over it. this, the doctors explain is being done to raise the temperature of the baby's body. since it has been born prematurely, the body condition would be cold. dr khan said there have been cases of babies weighing 900 grams, and 1,000 grams at the time of birth. but this is probably the lowest weight recorded, he added.