[caption id="attachment_78977" align="aligncenter" width="992"] Born Without Blood: Ghost White Baby Had No Blood[/caption]Born Without Blood: Baby Born with only 20% of Its Blood and Survives

Fountain Valley, California - Little Hope Juarez is a very lucky little girl. In recent years, she is only the second child born without most of its blood that survived and she has her mother Jennifer Juarez to thank.

Mrs. Juarez grew concerned when her baby stopped kicking with three weeks to go before her delivery. She expressed this concern to her nurse midwife and upon investigating, it was determined the baby was losing blood to what is called fetal-maternal hemorrhaging.

"When they first pulled her out, she looked perfectly fine," said Juarez, 27, of Fountain Valley, Calif. "But she was ghost white. She was breathing like a normal baby, but she had no color to her--not even pink."

Hope Juarez needed an emergency blood transfusion to restore her blood level and that required her to be delivered immediately. An emergency C-section was conducted and it was found that the child had lost so much blood that only 20% of its blood remained. The loss of blood had the baby with what is called a "ghost white" appearance.

It remains unclear just what causes fetal-maternal hemorrhaging, but what is clear is that it can onset quickly and the child cannot long survive without an adequate amount of blood.

Time was critical to her survival and doctors believe that had the mother waited even a few more hours and the child would have perished. Rightly so, they credit her mother with saving her life.

"ghost white babies" are rare, and those that do not die in utero or are still born, can have neurological damage, according to the National Institutes of Health. The biggest signal of fetal-maternal hemorrhage is decreased fetal activity, according to Dr. Marielle Nguyen, a neonatologist at Kaiser Permanente, Irvine Medical Center, where Hope was born. She said all indications are that the baby will have no problems.

"We have seen this, but not often," said Nguyen. "In Hope's case, her outcome was beautiful because it was the classic textbook case they tell you about. The mom knew right away that she had a clue something was wrong. She couldn't feel the baby move. And she came in right away and we delivered the baby. If we had waited any longer, the outcome would have been different."

[caption id="attachment_78976" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Hope Juarez's first name is an appropriate one: The 6-week-old is only the second known "ghost white baby" born in recent years to actually survive, reports Yahoo! Shine.
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In 2012, The Telegraph reporteda 6-month-old who was the other baby to recently survive a similar complication. Olivia Bearman's mother also noticed the baby had stopped kicking. After birth it was discovered the child had "lost blood directly into her mum's blood circulation," explains a neonatal nurse.

On The Web:
Born Without Blood
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/02/04/ghost-white-baby-born-without-most-her-blood/

Born Without Blod: Ghost White Baby Born Without Any Blood
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/ghost-white-baby-born-blood/story?id=22364559

Ghost white baby: Hope Juarez, miracle baby, born without blood
http://www.examiner.com/article/ghost-white-baby-hope-juarez-miracle-baby-born-without-blood

'Ghost White Baby' Born Without Most of Her Blood
http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/39-ghost-white-baby-39-born-without-most-163500551.html