Yahoo Lifestyle Premature baby saved by a plastic sandwich bag
Emily Cresser was born 16 weeks early - too small for an incubator
Claire Cresser was just 24 weeks pregnant when her waters broke and she went into labour back in February this year.
Four days later she gave birth to Emily. The baby girl weighed less than half a kilo at birth and was too small for the incubators in the neonatal ward.
In the fight to keep Emily alive, doctors at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh immediately placed her inside a resealable plastic bag, similar to a sandwich bag you would buy in a supermarket.
Paediatrician, Dr Andrew Gallagher explained the remarkable technique to the UK’s Daily Mail, saying 'The bag acts as a micro environment. At this age she was too tiny for an incubator, which is designed for full-term babies.'
Babies who are born so prematurely have very little body fat to keep them warm, putting them at a high risk of developing hypothermia. The plastic bag helps to warm the baby by mimicking the environment inside the womb.
Latest UK figures show that babies born at 24 weeks have only a 42 per cent chance of survival.
Emily is now three months old and she weighs almost two kilograms. After not being allowed to hold her daughter until she was one month old, Claire Cressey received news just this weekend that she would finally be allowed to take baby Emily home in mid-June.
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