When little Tenayah Gimbert arrived into the world, she weighed just 409 grams and was scarcely larger than her mothers hand.[i] Born at 22 weeks and 3 days her odds of survival were slim. Most babies born so early do not make it. Yet thanks to the extraordinary care at Brisbane’s Mater Mother’s Hospital, Tenayah is not only alive, but thriving. At just 128 days old, she has shown no signs of major complications, avoided surgery, and is now tipping the scales at a healthy three kilograms.
Her story is rightly being hailed as a miracle, but is also something more. It is a reminder that even at 22 weeks, what we are speaking about is not a “bundle of cells” or merely a “foetus”. We are speaking about a baby – tiny and fragile but as real and human as any child in a postnatal ward.
The Humanity of the Unborn
To truly grasp the miracle of Tenayah’s life we must first recognise who she is and what every child in the womb is. She is unmistakably human. At 22 weeks, a baby has a beating heart that has been working since six weeks. Her brain is active, sending signals that control movement, swallowing, and even primitive sleep cycles. She has eyelashes, eyebrows, unique fingerprints, and tiny fingernails. She can move her arms and legs with purpose, responding to touch and sound. Her lungs are forming, her skin is thin but already covering a complete, small body. In fact, her proportions are recognisably those of a newborn – only smaller.[ii]
Parents who see ultrasound scans at this stage often describe the shock of recognition, their child sucks a thumb, hiccups or stretches out a hand. These are not impersonal medical images, they are windows into the life of a son or a daughter who has a purpose in this world.
When Tenayah was born prematurely, no one mistook her for anything other than a baby. Nurses wrapped her in blankets, doctors fought for her survival, and her parents were in awe of how well she was doing. Her size did not diminish her humanity; it only underscored her fragility. She was not a ‘potential person’ suddenly made real by her early birth. She was the same child she had been the day before, only now visible to the world outside the womb.
This is why stories like Tenayah’s matter so deeply. They strip away the euphemisms that cloud our moral vision. Words like “foetus” or “tissue” may be clinically accurate, but they can be used to obscure rather than clarify. The reality is very clear: at 22 weeks we are looking at a baby who is capable of life outside the womb – and whose humanity does not depend on location.
Mater Hospital: Saving lives not ending them
In recent months, the Mater Brisbane Hospital was heavily criticised in the media for refusing to provide abortions, accused of putting religion before women.[iii] Yet this very same hospital is one of only four in Queensland equipped to save babies born on the edge of viability. Without the skill and care of the team at the Mater, Tenayah would almost certainly not be alive.
The contrast could not be clearer. The Mater is condemned for refusing to end lives at the very same time it is demonstrating its extraordinary ability to preserve them.
The Law in Queensland
The inconsistencies in abortion policies in Queensland is very evident. Under Queensland law, abortion is lawful on request up to 22 weeks gestation, with no reason required. Beyond that point, abortion is permitted right up until birth, provided two doctors agree it is appropriate.[iv]
That means that at the age Tenayah is being celebrated as a miracle of modern medicine, other babies at the same stage of development can legally be aborted, and if before 22 weeks, on request with no reason required. It is difficult to reconcile this contradiction: in one hospital ward, a 22 week old baby is being fought for with every resource available, while in another, a 22 week old baby is being aborted.
Survival rates for very premature babies
Often at 22 weeks we would be told the chances of survival are very slim. But Tenayah’s life shows that behind every number is a child worth fighting for.
- In Australia and New Zealand, five in ten babies admitted to the NICU at 23 weeks survive. This jumps up to seven in ten babies who survive at 24 weeks.[v]
These aren’t just statistics. They are children, thousands of them across the world, who now grow up to attend school, play and live full lives because someone believed they were worth saving.
And so the question becomes unavoidable. If five in ten babies born at 23 weeks gestation given care in Australia survive, how can we possibly turn around and say that babies of the same age in the womb are disposable?
Medicine is racing ahead, stretching the margins of viability further back every year. Yet our laws disregard that completely, allowing Queenslanders to kill unborn babies at any stage. It is in some ways a cruel irony that we can cheer on the survival of a 22 week old baby in one room while providing for the destruction of a life in another.
A hopeful ending
Tenayah’s story is one of courage – her parents’, her doctors’ and her own. But it is also a challenge to us as a society, it shows how real life is at 22 weeks. It is life that we must fight to protect at every stage.
As we celebrate her survival, let us recognise that every baby in the womb is as real as she is. They all deserve the chance to live, whether born early in the delivery room or still growing in the safety of a mothers womb.
Tenayah’s tiny body tells us something louder than any argument – that this is life we are talking about. Real human life. Life that is so worth protecting.
[i] Jackie Sinnerton, ‘Tenayah Gimbert: The premature baby defying the odds’. Courier Mail. https://www.couriermail.com.au/health/family-health/pregnancy/tenayah-gimbert-the-premature-baby-defying-the-odds/news-story/f27f42789309f2edd1a9215070bf9d96?campaignType=external&campaignChannel=syndication&campaignName=ncacont&campaignContent&campaignSource=the_courier_mail&campaignPlacement=edm&net_sub_id=284386009&type=free_text_block&position=1 Accessed 11 September 2025.
[ii] Cleveland Clinic, ‘Fetal Development’. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/7247-fetal-development-stages-of-growth Accessed 11 September 2025.
[iii] Emma Pollard, [23 July 2025] ABC News, ‘Mater Hospital’s religious abortion ban left couple feeling ‘abandoned’. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-23/mater-hospital-religious-abortion-ban-couple-feeling-abandoned/105532550 Accessed 11 September 2025.
[iv] Queensland Government, ‘Termination of Pregnancy’. https://www.qld.gov.au/health/children/pregnancy/termination-of-pregnancy Accessed 11 September 2025.
[v] Queensland Health Parent Information, Queensland Clinical Guidelines. Babies Born very early. https://www.health.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0025/1007935/c-xtreme-preterm.pdf Accessed 11 September 2025.