THE SMALLEST OF THE SMALL
Two years after their girl is born weighing less than a pound, a Coquitlam family recounts surreal moment She is able to joke now that it was a sneeze, and not a push, that led to her daughter’s birth. But at the time, Nobue Yamaguchi Jones was stunned to have given birth at only 25 weeks pregnant. Equally shocking was just how small the newborn girl was – 380 grams, just over three quarters of a pound. Lillian Yamaguchi Jones had become the smallest baby Royal Columbian Hospital’s neonatal intensive care team ever had to support. “On Saturday morning, I had a little spotting,” explains Nobue about what led her to go to Royal Columbian Hospital in late March 2015. “It
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was very minor, but I never had that spotting before, so I just wanted to go and get checked.” To Nobue’s surprise, the doctor who examined her found the mother-to-be was dilating. The contractions started soon after. “After that, the doctor admitted me to bed rest,” says Nobue. Having undergone in vitro fertilisation, the Coquitlam resident and nurse had been attuned to the potential complications of a pregnancy. But this was all happening so fast. Three hours after her arrival to the hospital, Nobue was now hoping to delay the delivery as long as possible.
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Lillian, resting her hand on her father’s finger, was born weighing only 380 grams, the smallest baby ever supported by Royal Columbian Hospital’s VARIETY neonatal intensive care unit.
Emergency delivery Her situation, however, was about to become much more urgent. Just before midnight, Nobue left the bed to go to the bathroom. That’s when she sneezed. “She basically poked out,’ says Nobue. “The water didn’t break. But something dropped. The doctor came and said it’s the sac. And one of Lillian’s hands was out.” As the medical team made plans for an emergency C-section, Nobue and her husband Ennis tried to remain calm. Nobue vividly remembers one doctor taking her by the hand to tell her she was doing great. That’s when all her
