Baby born weighing just 8 ounces goes home from the hospital

A baby in Minnesota who was the second-smallest live birth on record has gone home – and just in time for his first birthday.

Bilal, the smallest of mom Hawa Mohamed’s quintuplets, weighed just eight ounces at birth when he was born in March 2024. 

He and his siblings were born after just 23 weeks gestation – and the odds of all five of them surviving were pretty slim, said their doctors. His largest sibling was only one pound. 

Things that weigh around 8 oz.: a small-medium apple, a bar of soap, a can of soda, a small paperback book.

Dr. Thomas George, the medical director for neonatology at Children’s Minnesota, told local CBS affiliate WCCO that there was about a 10% chance that all of the quintuplets would survive. 

Bilal, George told WCCO, is “the second smallest baby in the world described in the tiniest babies registry.” 

“I didn’t think he was going to make it,” Mohamed told WCCO through an interpreter. “We were living by the hour, and by the grace of God, he is here.” 

“I was always hopeful I would be a mom,” said Mohamed, adding “and then God gave me five.” 

Mohamed gave thanks to God for the survival of her children, telling WCCO she is “very happy today because my children and I are healthy and going home."

She also thanked the staff at Children’s Minnesota, where her children were treated at the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit.

“All the staff here helped me a lot. They were there for me, and helped me raise my children,” she said. 

The only smaller baby than Bilal on record was a 7.5 ounce girl who was born in Singapore in 2020; Aleteia previously reported about this little one.

That baby, named Kwek Yu Xuan, was born by emergency Cesarian section at 24 weeks gestation after her mother developed preeclampsia. 

She  was discharged from the hospital at 13 months old, weighing in at 14 pounds – 28 times her birth weight.

Aleteia reached out to Children's Minnesota for additional comment about baby Bilal.