The smallest baby to be born and survive in the Memorial Healthcare System has overcome the odds to head home on Tuesday—seven months after she was born.
Bi’Laynie Myna Daucima was born on April 8 at just 23 weeks gestation. She weighed 301 grams, or about 10.6 ounces, and measured only 9.8 inches long.
The hospital system wrote in a news release that she is the apple of her mother’s eye, and “weighed about as much as one, too.”
“Bi’Laynie was born near the limits of what you can survive at as a tiny premature baby, and she’s a strong fighter and she’s done incredibly well, and so we’re so happy to celebrate with she and her mom today,” Dr. Cherie Foster, the division chief of neonatology at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, said at a news conference.
On Tuesday, the nurses, doctors, and caregivers who helped her and her mother gathered to celebrate and wish her well as she “graduated” from the Wasie Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).
Bi’Laynie’s mother, Jeamyna Jean Charles, could hardly contain her excitement.
“I’m so excited that I can’t believe this actually happened,” she said. “And I’m still shocked. I’m like, wake up!”
Charles said she first went to the hospital at 22 weeks pregnant because her blood pressure was 180 over 100.
“I was diagnosed with preeclampsia… That was in March, and they told me that I was going to have to stay until I deliver the baby, which they were going to try to push me up to 34 weeks,” she explained.
But about a week later, Bi’Laynie’s blood started flowing backwards in what her mother describes as a life or death situation.
“So, you know, with the prayers and faith from my doctor, my sister-in-law, my niece who was here who prayed for me, my mom, Marie… we took a leap of faith and we delivered her. And when she came out, she came out with one eye open like, I’m ready, I’m here,” Charles describes. “So, this is Miss Bi’Laynie, our miracle baby.”
Her chances of survival were slim, and Bi’Laynie faced additional challenges including femur fractures, which the hospital says are common for babies born so prematurely.
“Her tiny veins required the expert precision of veteran nurses to place her PICC lines. Through every hurdle, Bi’Laynie’s care team at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital provided exceptional, personalized care with both skill and compassion,” a news release reads.
Foster said it took the “teamwork and belief of 400 people to get Bi’Laynie to this point.”
And the next chapter of her journey is a happy one: seven months later, Bi’Laynie is going home to her proud parents and two older brothers.
To other mothers who may be experiencing the unknowns of a premature birth, Charles advised, “Have hope. Right here, Bi’Laynie, she is the faith. So if you didn’t believe, you’re gonna be a believer now.”
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