Each of these premature babies has overcome enormous odds to take their first breath and gather the strength to get out of hospital and head home to their families.

Tomorrow is National Premmie Day and to celebrate the fighting spirit of these babies Victoria's three support groups have, for the first time, come together so families can share their amazing stories of courage and survival.

From the moment they are born premature babies face medical complications including respiratory disorders, sight and hearing loss, liver and kidney problems and jaundice.

After months in hospital, when they finally head home, they are prone to infections, must stay indoors and require extra love and care.

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MUMBAI: If all goes well, Appu could well be Mumbai’s own miracle baby. He doesn’t have a name yet but the nurses in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of Holy Family, Bandra, have christened him Appu. He is possibly among the youngest prematurely born babies to make it to three weeks of age anywhere in the world. He was reportedly born on December 23 while his mother was in her 23rd week of pregnancy.

 http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Born-at-23-wks-he-fights-to-live-on/articleshow/5446679.cms

BY RASHA MADKOUR

Associated Press

Christened Appu by the hospital nurses, the baby was taken off oxygen after he started breathing on his own since Friday afternoon. Doctors are optimistic that the child, born to Borivli couple and now admitted at the Holy Family Hospital in Bandra, will start gaining weight in the next two-three weeks. The improvement in Appu's condition has come as a relief to his father Amar Patil.

 http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Premature-baby-starts-breathing-on-his-own/articleshow/5450298.cms

NaturalNews) Babies born prematurely are at increased risk for a host of health problems. But now research by Israeli scientists has uncovered a non-drug way to help preemies gain weight and grow stronger quickly. A new study by Dr. Dror Mandel and Dr. Ronit Lubetzky of the Tel Aviv Medical Center, which is affiliated with Tel Aviv University's Sackler School of Medicine, found premature infants exposed to thirty minutes of Mozart's music daily grew far more rapidly than premature babies not exposed to the classical music.

 http://www.naturalnews.com/028011_music_premature_babies.html

A premature baby boy who was born on during a flight from Penang to Kuching, has been given free flights for life.

Expectant mother Liew Siaw Hsia had thought nothing of taking the AirAsia flight as she wasn't due for another 11 weeks.

But the baby had other ideas and mid-flight Liew started to feel labor pains. Luckily there was a doctor onboard who helped the 31-year-old mom give birth at 2,000 feet.

http://newslite.tv/2009/10/23/baby-born-on-plane-gets-free-f.html#

The little Palmerston North girl had come so far since battling almost every complication that can beset a premature baby some 20 blood transfusions, eye surgery, a series of infections and a type of pneumonia that nearly claimed her life just before Christmas.

The Peck family shared the story of how the surprisingly strong and happy little girl had survived those challenges early this year with the support of Hope, a group set up in the city for parents of premmies.

But today, Jo and dad Lou have to say their final goodbyes to their first and only child.

Their beloved daughter died in Palmerston North Hospital on Saturday, the region's first life snuffed out by swine flu......

http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/news/2665818/Little-Amelies-long-battle

When Vincent Lalumière was born in 1993, he weighed only four pounds - just over half the normal weight of a baby.

He came into this world eight weeks premature, and was unable to breathe on his own. Doctors hooked him up to a ventilator, and he spent the next 13 months in hospital, celebrating his first birthday away from home.

That was then.

Today, Vincent is a musically gifted 16-year-old, fluently bilingual and with no lingering health problems.....

http://www.montrealgazette.com/Health/Preemies+overcome+stereotypes/1703207/story.html

Taking folic acid supplements for at least one year before conception reduces the risk of having a premature baby, a new study has found.

Although most pregnancies last about 40 weeks, approximately 10% of babies are born before 37 weeks.

Babies born prematurely are less likely to survive than full-term babies and are more likely to have breathing difficulties and learning or developmental disabilities.

Currently, there are no effective methods of preventing premature (preterm) births.

However, researchers found that women who have low levels of folate (folic acid) are more likely to give birth prematurely.

Folic acid supplements have been recommended in Ireland for child bearing women for many years, particularly those planning a pregnancy. They have been shown to significantly reduce the risk of neural tube defects.

In the US study of almost 35,000 women, taking folate supplements for at least one year before conception halved the risk of giving birth between 28 to 32 weeks gestation......

http://www.irishhealth.com/article.html?id=15500

OTTAWA - Several biological and social factors can be strong indicators of whether an expectant mother will give birth to a premature or underweight baby, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

In a report released Thursday entitled “Too Early, Too Small,” the organization found that more than 54,000 of the approximately 350,000 babies born nationwide in 2006-07 came into the world prematurely, or were underweight.

http://www.canada.com/life/Premature+babies+related+social+factors+Study/1231540/story.html