How an ordinary sandwich bag kept a premature baby alive

Though it may seem like a simple household item, a sandwich bag helped keep a young baby born prematurely alive.

UK-based mum Jennifer Derwent was shopping with her husband when she started to feel pain in her stomach.

She was only 30 weeks along. Her husband, unlike Jennifer, grew increasingly concerned because he knew how difficult it was for her to give birth to their first child.

The labor was so difficult and sudden that he had to deliver the child at home.

Best weapon against hypothermia

Right after he was born, doctors quickly blanketed him in a plastic sandwich bag. This reportedly regulates his body temperature.

“It was quite shocking to give birth and then for the first thing to happen is they put your baby in a sandwich bag,” said Jennifer.

Despite this, she praises the hospital’s excellence and resourcefulness in handling the risky birth.

“When I was in hospital I felt really embarrassed because I couldn’t feel anything, but the nurses were concerned as they knew he would be born any minute.”

But she credits that seemingly ordinary item for keeping him safe and warm.

The hardest thing, Jennifer recalls, was not being able to hold little Isaac.

Jennifer also goes on to say the picture of him in a sandwich bag is something they can all laugh about when Isaac gets older.

This was not the first time a sandwich bag saved a life

It has become common practice in Derriford Hospital U.K. to use sandwich bags to keep premature babies alive.

Just last May, doctors feared that a baby girl named Pixie born prematurely at 28 weeks would not survive.

Pixie weighed less than 500 grams. And doctors put her inside a sandwich bag before being brought to the ICU where she would remain in an incubator for five months.

When she tipped the scales at 3.4 kg, her parents were finally able to bring her home.

Isaac, however, spent five weeks in the ICU. He is now a happy five-month-old who is growing and developing well.

READ: Premature babies improve faster when they hear their mother’s voice

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