World’s most premature baby defies odds with first birthday

The Guinness Book of World Records’ most premature baby, Nash Keen, celebrated his first birthday this month, marking one year of life after his birth after just 21 weeks of gestation. Doctors in Iowa City delivered and resuscitated Nash nearly five months early, according to Guinness. He weighed 10 oz—about as much as a potato—and measured 9.5 inches long. He spent half a year in the neonatal intensive care unit before his parents, Mollie and Randall, could take him home this January.

University of Iowa Health Care Stead Family Children's Hospital released photos on Wednesday showing Nash’s impressive development from his birth to the celebration of his first birthday, July 5. 

Students for Life President Kristan Hawkins celebrated Nash’s birth in a social media post last week. Abortion advocates would abort a baby at 21 weeks of development by calling it a clump of cells, she said. A recent study with 10,000 U.S. infants showed that four out of five babies born at 22-28 weeks of gestation survive to be discharged from the hospital.

Who held the previous record for the most premature baby? Alabama’s Curtis Zy-Keith Means held the previous record for his birth at 132 days premature. Means was born in 2020 at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital. Means and Nash happen to share a July 5th birthdate.

Dig deeper: Read Lauren Canterberry’s report on how more than one-third of U.S. counties lack adequate maternity care.