The baby of Adriana Smith, a brain-dead pregnant woman in the US who has been kept alive by ventilators under Georgia’s abortion law, has been delivered.

The baby, named Chance, was born prematurely via emergency cesarean section on Friday, Smith’s mother April Newkirk said.

Chance weighed about one pound 13 ounces (822g) and is in the neonatal intensive care unit.

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“He’s expected to be OK,” Newkirk said.

“He’s just fighting. We just want prayers for him. Just keep praying for him.”

Smith also has an older son.

Newkirk did not immediately respond to a new request for comment.

She previously said the family was required to keep Smith alive under the state’s near-total abortion ban, known as the LIFE Act.

Smith, whose family celebrated her 31st birthday on Sunday, has been hospitalised since February after she initially sought treatment for severe headaches, her family has said.

Newkirk said Smith initially went to Northside Hospital but was released and given medication. She said the hospital did not run any scans or tests.

Northside did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

A day after she sought treatment, Smith’s boyfriend woke to find her gasping for air and making gargling noises, Newkirk said.

Smith was rushed to Emory Decatur Hospital and transferred to Emory University Hospital, where a CT scan showed multiple blood clots in her brain.

Newkirk said her daughter was declared brain-dead and placed on a ventilator.

Smith will be taken off life support on Tuesday, local time.

“It’s kind of hard, you know,” she said. “It’s hard to process.”

In Georgia, abortions are illegal after six weeks of pregnancy. Exceptions include some situations to protect women’s lives and health, when fetal anomalies are detected and in cases of rape and incest that have been documented with police.

The state Attorney General’s Office said in May that nothing in the LIFE Act “requires medical professionals to keep a woman on life support after brain death”.

The office said removing a patient from life support “is not an action with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy”.

However, Republican state senator Ed Setzler, who sponsored the 2019 law, told The Associated Press that he supported the hospital’s actions.

“I think it is completely appropriate that the hospital do what they can to save the life of the child,” he said.

“I think this is an unusual circumstance, but I think it highlights the value of innocent human life.

“I think the hospital is acting appropriately.”

Emory Healthcare did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A spokesperson said in a statement last month that it “uses consensus from clinical experts, medical literature and legal guidance to support our providers as they make individualised treatment recommendations in compliance with Georgia’s abortion laws and all other applicable laws”.