‘Look, they’re getting skin!’: are we right to strive to save the world’s tiniest babies?

Doctors are pushing the limits of science and human biology to save more extremely premature babies than ever before. But when so few survive, are we putting them through needless suffering?

Alice Smith was five months pregnant when she noticed some discharge one evening, and something felt off. She did an online yoga class and went to bed early, but the next day she felt worried enough to phone the maternity triage line. The midwives invited her in for a checkup at Homerton hospital, near her home in east London. Smith emailed her boss to explain she’d be offline for a few hours and then headed to hospital.

Until then, her pregnancy had progressed smoothly. She was 37 years old, healthy and expecting twins: a boy and a girl. A routine ultrasound a few weeks earlier had suggested all was well. Smith and her husband, Jim Clack, had already decided to name their daughter Peggy. For their son they had drawn up a shortlist of names.

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‘Look, they’re getting skin!’: are we right to strive to save the world’s tiniest babies?

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