Born With Her Spine Outside Her Body, 1 Week Old Baby Needs Urgent Surgery To Live

For the past week, Annu hasn’t slept. Not because she’s a new mom - but because her baby can’t sleep either.

‘There’s a huge boil on her back…she can’t even lie down because of that. We can’t even place a pillow. She can’t twist or turn like other babies. She just cries all night in terrible pain,’- Annu, mother of newborn

She was tiny and fragile until they saw the horrifying swelling on her lower back

Avya was born on 7th April, 2025 with Spina Bifida with Myelomeningocele, a rare and dangerous birth defect where the baby’s spinal cord and nerves are outside her body, exposed and unprotected. If not corrected urgently with a surgery, this condition can leave their child paralysed, loss of bladder control, and even brain damage. 

The swelling is so big that she can’t sleep peacefully. No lullaby quiets her cries. No medicine that truly works anymore. Her fragile spine, still open, makes every movement of this newborn hurt her own self.

Avya is just a week old and already fighting a battle most adults wouldn’t survive

Sunder and Annu became parents just a week ago. They were just about to celebrate their second anniversary with their newborn - named her Avya, after her mother, as a blessing. A moment that should’ve been filled with joy is now drowned in tears of helplessness. 

But within minutes of birth, she was rushed away to the NICU as a sac-like swelling on her back burst right after her delivery. Sunder, her father, wasn’t even allowed to hold her.

“I just wanted to hold her once… just once. But I had to stay away from her and watch her be connected to huge machines twice her size beeping loudly.” - Sunder wiping away his tears.

Their baby is in constant pain with a high risk of paralysis

Doctors say she needs urgent surgery that would cost them Rs.7.5 lakhs to close her spine. Without it, her tiny body may not make it past the next few weeks.

‘I’m scared to even touch my daughter… like I might make her pain worse. Every night I whisper I’m sorry to her… I massage her feet, stroke her head but the pain never fades.’- Annu. 

Sunder, a daily wage labourer, earns about Rs.400 when work is available and often nothing at all. Annu stitched clothes before her pregnancy. Now, they are barely surviving - having already borrowed over Rs.30,000 for initial hospitalization. The surgery and hospitalisation are expected to cost much more. 

She was just 3.2 kgs at birth. Now, even less. And yet, every time her parents look at her, they refuse to give up their hopes.

This is their first child. If they lose her, their entire world will slip away before they even get to be a family. Please click here to help this 1-week- old baby get a surgery before she is paralyzed for life.