Disclaimer: the following is not medical advice and should not be treated as such. If you have questions about a possible or actual premature birth, consult your doctor.

Premature babies are a fact of life. Everyone hopes for a good pregnancy that is carried to term with a healthy baby at the end, but it doesn’t always pan out that way. Sometimes, babies are born premature. Doctors define a full term pregnancy as 40 weeks. Any baby born after 37 weeks is considered not to be premature. Any baby born before 37 weeks is considered premature.

This will astonish you: the most premature baby to ever be born was born at only 21 weeks of age! Born in 2017, Lyla Stensrud was a premature baby who was resuscitated and, despite being born so premature, defied the odds and lived. She is now 4 years old and a happy, healthy little girl. When she was born, she only weighed one pound!

There are more people alive today who were born prematurely. This is not because pregnancies are ending prematurely more often. Rather, because of advances in medical technology, premature babies are much more likely to survive now than they were hundreds of years ago. Especially because modern maternity wards have access to oxygen and can give oxygen to babies, premature babies are much more likely to survive than they once were. The average weight of a newborn baby is about 7 pounds. Premature babies are significantly lighter. They also tend to look a little different.