[HPforGrownups] Re: Harry and Hermione being siblings...

[heiditandy]

No: HPFGUIDX 53604

Grace wrote: 
> 
> Has anyone ever taken into consideration that Harry is premature.  
> Aren't premature children smaller than others throughout their 
> life?  Being that Harry is small could mean he was a premature 
> baby.  Mabye Lily was so stressed about the whole Voldemort thing 
> she caused herself to give birth earlier than expected.

Now we have to get into the whole question of Muggle abilities back in
1980 vs what witches & wizards would be expected to do. 

Even now, a baby born between 25 and 32 weeks is in serious danger of
not making it - the lungs are insufficiently developed to enable the
baby to breathe on its own, and the baby will *always* require help in
the early months of life, until his physical structure is capable of
supporting him. And in 1980, a Muggle baby born that premature (i.e. in
the two-pound range) would have a very slim chance of surviving. 

Now, it's possible that witches & wizards had ways of taking care of
premature babies that would've allowed a two-pounder to survive and
thrive, but it's more likely that any medimagical advancements they had
would've been geared towards keeping the baby in utero longer, as that's
the best and safest place for survival before, say, 34 weeks. After 34
weeks, in 1980 as now, the dangers are minimized, and a fetus is
considered term at 36-37 weeks (depends on the doctor), so that wouldn't
even be deemed premature. 

I don't think it's proper to make a correlation between Harry's height
and any potential of prematurity - I'm sure that studies would show that
a child who's been almost-malnourished, as Harry was by the Dursleys, is
at more of a risk of stunted growth than a child who was simply born a
few weeks early.

Accordingly, I think that we can't presume that Harry was born more than
6-8 weeks early, simply because the chances of survival at that size and
gestational age would simply be too scanty and it would've been very,
very unusual in the Muggle world, and unlikely in the wizarding world
for the baby to be born, versus magic used to keep the baby inside. 

Of *course* it's physically possible for a mother to give birth twice in
a twelve month period. It's just dangerous and unusual, given the
physiology of a woman in the months after she's given birth, and were
Lily nursing, it would have been virtually impossible without magical
intervention.

Heidi, who is currently at 30 weeks