Can Babies Survive at 22 Weeks or 23 Weeks?
The viability limit for pre-term babies continues to get lower as technology and hospital processes improve. The current guidance in the US is to recommend resuscitation for babies born at 24 weeks and to only consider resuscitation for those born at 22 and 23 weeks. Many U.S. hospitals decide not to treat these very young babies. However, there is some interesting international data on survival rates of babies delivered at 22 and 23 weeks. Survival rates for babies alive at birth, with active/NICU treatment Country in which study occurred 22-week live birth 23-week live birth Dates Germany [1] 61% 71% 2010 - 2014 Sweden [2] 58% 66% 2014 - 2016 UK [3] 54% (NICU) 35% (active) 45% (NICU) 38% (active) 2016 USA [4] 39% (active treatment, including antenatal steroids) 55% (active treatment, including antenatal steroids) 2012 - 2016 These rates can give us a lot of hope. For an individual baby, there is no way ...