A woman in Bavaria, Germany has given birth to a healthy child of unstated gender, despite being in a coma for 22 weeks. It’s unknown why her heart attack caused her current vegetative state, but because she was in her 13th week of pregnancy at the time of her collapse, she was transferred to the gynecological ward at Erlangen University Hospital and kept vigil over by hospital staff until the delivery of her baby.
This is the first such recorded instance of a comatose birth and doctors are unsure if the coma is reversible. However, the patient’s body presumably remains able to nurture her newborn, with the ability to express breast milk. There will likely commence a period of assisted bonding of mother to child, given that the patient is unable to hold her baby on her own. The attachment phenomenon at this stage is extremely important for the baby, who needs a stable environment to help it grow.
Science has made a great many leaps over the decades, but it can’t do everything. The baby’s father has an arduous task ahead of him, and an emotional one. Let’s hope for everyone’s sake that the mother revives soon, so she can share in an experience that might not be repeated in her lifetime.
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