After trying to conceive for 10 years, a Turkish woman in southern Konya province gave birth prematurely to the smallest baby boy in the world Wednesday, weighing 310 grams (10.9 ounces).
The baby was born at 24 weeks gestation - 16 weeks early - after high blood pressure reduced blood flow to the baby, forcing doctors into the difficult choice of delivering the baby early through caesarian section at Selçuk University Medical Faculty Hospital.
Parents Mehmet and Saniye Karacan, who had undergone three in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures since they married 11 years ago, joyfully welcomed their tiny baby Tuğra into the world.
"Now I have bitter joy," mother Saniye Karacan told Anadolu Agency. "I can't contain myself."
Doctors hope the baby Tuğra will survive if a critical issue with his lungs can be fixed.
"If the problem [with the lungs] can be solved, there's a high chance of survival," said Dr. Ali Acar of Necmettin Erbakan University's Faculty of Medicine.
"The smallest baby in the world weighed 280 grams (9.9 ounces). Our patient weighs around 300 grams (10.6 ounces). If he lives, he'll be one of the smallest living babies in the world," Acar said.
The baby's mother, who is still in the hospital, says although she hasn't seen her firstborn yet, she's happy.
"As soon as I get out of the hospital, I will go to see my baby," she said.
The world's smallest surviving premature baby for many years was Madeline Mann, who weighed 280 grams (9.9 ounces), born at 26 weeks in 1989. Her record was broken in 2004 by Rumaisa Rahman, who weighed 244 grams (8.6 ounces) born at 25 weeks. Both baby girls were delivered at Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois, United States.
The smallest premature boy to survive was Jonathon Whitehill who weighed 310 grams (10.9 ounces) at 25 weeks.
