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Coffin birth, also known as postmortem fetal extrusion, is the expulsion of a nonviable fetus through the vaginal opening of the decomposing body of a deceased pregnant woman due to increasing pressure from intra-abdominal gases. This kind of postmortem delivery occurs very rarely during the decomposition of a body.
Fetuses can survive for surprisingly long after their mothers pass away, depending on the state of the body. For example, if there is no more circulation in the mother, then she can no longer carry oxygen to the umbilical cord and the fetus will soon die.
A baby can survive for up to four weeks without a mother, but the longer a baby survives without a mother, the more difficult it becomes. If a mother dies during or shortly after childbirth, the baby has an increased chance of survival if it is immediately given medical attention.
Maternal death is when a pregnant or birthing person dies during pregnancy or up to 42 days after the end of pregnancy from health problems related to pregnancy. Maternal death and maternal mortality mean the same thing.
In the week after delivery, severe bleeding, high blood pressure and infection are most common. Cardiomyopathy (weakened heart muscle) is the leading cause of deaths 1 week to 1 year after delivery.
An orphan is a child whose parents have died. The term is sometimes used to describe any person whose parents have died, though this is less common. A child who only has one living parent is also sometimes considered an orphan.
Most babies can survive outside the womb when they're around 22 to 23 weeks, but it's difficult to pinpoint an exact age. After that, the chances of survival increase steadily, and babies around 28 weeks generally have a high rate of surviving with little or no long-term health problems.
Late preterm: Your baby is born between 34 and 36 completed weeks of pregnancy. Moderately preterm: Your baby is born between 32 and 34 weeks of pregnancy. Very preterm: Your baby is born at less than 32 weeks of pregnancy. Extremely preterm: Your baby is born at or before 25 weeks of pregnancy.
A posthumous child is a child born after the death of one of their biological parents.
A posthumous birth is the birth of a child after the death of a biological parent. A person born in these circumstances is called a posthumous child or a posthumously born person.
A maternal death is defined as a death while pregnant or within 42 days of the end of pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management, but not from accidental or incidental causes.
Saying goodbye to your baby
If the baby dies before 24 weeks, the hospital may offer to arrange for a cremation, possibly together with other babies who have died in pregnancy. If you prefer to take your baby home or to make your own arrangements, you can do that.
"Angel Baby," "Sunshine Baby," and "Rainbow Baby" are terms that refer to babies born just before or after another baby is lost due to a variety of reasons. They help immediate family members move through the grieving process and find meaning in the loss.
As for the fetus of a comatose pregnant woman, the prognosis depends on the underlying cause of the coma. Trauma affecting blood supply to the womb and severe organ dysfunction in the mother, for instance, all put the life and health of the fetus at extreme risk.
Your heart stops beating. Your brain stops. Other vital organs, including your kidneys and liver, stop. All your body systems powered by these organs shut down, too, so that they're no longer capable of carrying on the ongoing processes understood as, simply, living.
The earliest a baby has been born and survived is 21 weeks and 5 days. Two babies born prematurely hold the record for this. Surprisingly, the first record holder was born in 1987, at a time when the medical care of premature babies (neonatology) was a very new field.
Premature babies in Australia
When Richard Scott William Hutchinson was born five months prematurely – recognised by Guinness as the world's most premature baby – his doctors prepared his parents for the worst.
Guinness World Records officially named Curtis Means, born at 21 weeks and one day at UAB Hospital, the most premature infant to survive.
Motherless babies possible as scientists create live offspring without need for female egg. Motherless babies could be on the horizon after scientists discovered a method of creating offspring without the need for a female egg.
In general, infants that are born very early are not considered to be viable until after 24 weeks gestation. This means that if you give birth to an infant before they are 24 weeks old, their chance of surviving is usually less than 50 percent. Some infants are born before 24 weeks gestation and do survive.
Growing a baby outside the womb is known as ectogenesis (or exogenesis). And we're already using a form of it. When premature infants are transferred to humidicribs to continue their development in a neonatal unit, that's partial ectogenesis.
If a child has no parents — because the parents died or lost custody — the child is considered an orphan. Orphans are parentless. An orphanage is an institution that takes care of orphans.
Orphan. : Both the parents of the child have died. S/He is both motherless and fatherless.
UNICEF and its global partners define an orphan as “a child under 18 years of age who has lost one or both parents to any cause of death.”