23 Week Babies

BBC

NOMINATED FOR THE BRITISH DOCUMENTARY (GRIERSON) AWARD.

Babies born 4 months early - in the 23rd week of pregnancy - exist on the very edge of life. For BBC Two, I secured unprecedented access to an intensive care neonatal unit to follow these babies as they struggle to survive.

The odds are stark: of every 100 that are born, only one will reach adulthood without a disability. Because of these statistics, the Dutch do not resuscitate these babies. And now NHS managers are wondering if the money could be better spent on other patients?

Adam Wishart - Producer / Director

  • Tom Sutcliffe in The Independent

    “Here's an unsettling Venn diagram. One circle encloses the set of fetuses that may, within the current law, be terminated. The other circle encloses the set of premature babies that, within current technology, can successfully be kept alive. And in the intersection – somewhere between week 23 and week 24 of a pregnancy – lie those babies that qualify both as abortable and savable – the subject of Adam Wishart's challenging film 23 Week Babies: the Price of Life.”

  • The Telegraph

    “23 Week Babies: The Price of Life (BBC Two) took a taboo and broke it, gently, sensitively, but devastatingly.”