A surgical room. On the table we see a mother undergoing a c-section.Young enough at 23 weeks that under other circumstances she could legally be aborted, 1 1/3lb Holly is lifted from Clare's womb and we watch her first few minutes of life. She looks tiny, fragile but absolutely human. Over the next few hours drugs are pumped into her under-formed lungs to help them work. If all goes well we are told she will remain in her incubator until she would have been born. An alarm goes off. Doctors rush in, massage her heart and pump her with adrenaline. 'The baby's blood sample is just not compatible with life' we hear. And she's gone.
It's devastating viewing. Presenter Adam Wishart describes the existence of these '23 week babies' as a 'netherworld between life and death', 'born so prematurely that their survival stretches modern medicine to its limit'. Within the first minute he asks 'is it worth trying to keep these babies alive?'.
At Birmingham Women's Hospital- one of the few capable of resuscitating these babies-we meet Simone. Born 4 months early she has been subjected to injections to raise her blood pressure, drugs to induce clotting, drugs to boost her immune system.One week ago she would have classified as a miscarriage and allowed to die. A mere half of babies survive birth this early and of those 9 of 100 survive hospital. The statistics are stark.
And our natural reaction as human beings is yes. Yes we should do all we can because these babies cry, they wriggle and move like healthy babies. But 8 out of every 9 surviving 23 week old babies will suffer disability throughout their life. It's easy to raise funding for a plethora of NHS services to help 'miracle babies'. It's a lot more difficult to find the cash to support them when they become adults. This point is brought home by Heather, once a 'miracle baby' now a profoundly disabled adult who points out that 'as you get older your disability affects you a hell of a lot more', 'if you're willing to support someone at the beginning of life you should be willing to support them to the end'. The question is are we?
When you see the human stories behind the births and statistics it's hard to imagine making a decision based on money, regardless of the concrete fact that when all emotion is removed the few positive stories are far outweighed by the painful ones. It's not a question that can be answered in one programme. It's probably not even a question that can be definitively answered. Currently it's a personal choice made by the parents based upon the recommendation of those who know the most, their healthcare team.
When you look at the headlines raised by the programme- 'we must give premature babies the same rights as everyone else' (The Mirror)- it's easy to agree, but the programme ends on a question- when you put financial issues to the side is the current policy of support providing just that, or are we perpetuating suffering that nature would otherwise end? Is life at 23 weeks truly life, or is it just existing by the grace of science?
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