CHICAGO, Dec 21: Doctors at a clinic in Chicago on Tuesday presented what was believed to have been the world's smallest baby at only 243.8 grams, or the size of a mobile telephone, when it was born in September.
Rumaisa Rahman was born on Sept 19 and has been making splendid progress, doctors said. The baby now weighs 1,190 grams and would probably lead a normal life. According to the Guinness Book of Records, a 15-year-old American girl had held the record for the lowest weight when she was born in June 1989, weighing only 280 grams - 36.85 grams more than Rumaisa.
Rumaisa, whose name means "as white as milk" and her twin sister Hiba (God's gift) were born by Caesarean section. Their mother, Mahjabeen Shaikh, 23, had suffered a life-threatening pre-eclampsia, a toxic condition occurring in late pregnancy and characterized by high blood pressure.
Hiba weighed 567 grams at birth, more than twice her sister's weight, and will now be allowed to leave the clinic, unlike Rumaisa who will probably leave the clinic next month.
Their mother, Mahjabeen, and father, Mohammed Abdul Rahman, are from Hyderabad, India, and wed there last January. They had to wait more than a month before they could hold their tiny babies in their arms. The twins drink from bottles, but still need some oxygen to support their lungs. -dpa
