Tiny Preemie Named 'Pixie' Kept Warm With Plastic Grocery Store Bag After Birth
Sharon Grant gave birth to her daughter three months early.
— -- A tiny girl born three months early was so small that doctors used a tiny plastic grocery bag to help keep her warm.
Pixie's mother, Sharon Grant, said that her daughter was exceptionally small because she had stopped developing in utero.
"My placenta wasn’t feeding her properly and the umbilical cord," wasn't working well, said Grant. "If she stayed in me any longer than she wouldn't have survived."
Grant said she came up with her daughter's name on the way to the hospital for the delivery.
"I said she’s going to be so small we’re going to call her Pixie," said Grant.
Doctors at Derriford Hospital in the UK delivered Pixie via Cesarean section in May and Grant said at first she didn't think she'd be able to go through the operation because her blood pressure was so high.
"The birth was really stressful, I didn’t know if she was going to survive," said Grant. "They let me put some music on in the operating theater…they got my blood pressure down [for the surgery] and that’s when they put her in a plastic bag," to keep her warm.
Doctors at the Derriford Hospital said that at just over 1 pound, Pixie was one of the smallest infants they had ever card for, but clarified that using a sandwich bags on infants under 3.3 pounds was standard.
“For the last five to ten years, it has been widely acknowledged that treating babies by placing them into a clear plastic bag immediately after delivery is the best way to maintain a normal body temperature," Dr. Giles Richardson, Neonatology Consultant at Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust, which over sees Derriford, said in a statement.
"The wet newborn infant's body and limbs are placed into the bag, under a heater, which creates a greenhouse effect, and this is the most effective way of maintaining their temperature in the golden hour after birth."
Grant said the tiny grocery store plastic bag incubator, complete with logo, worked well and that today Pixie is thriving as a 5-month-old infant.
"She’s the most happy little baby," Grant told ABC News. "She’s just started to make little babies noties and kicks her feet around enjoys looking around."