Once again, those incredibly intuitive animals, have something huge to teach we humans. While I saw this story on the news yesterday, and believe it will be on again this morning, in case YOU haven’t had the joy of seeing it, I copied and pasted this article for you to read. Watching the story, I was overwhelmed with emotion. One might say it’s a miracle. I think it’s proof of how much we all need the human touch. In this case, I am not sure how much of the trauma was being removed from the mom’s womb, or…being apart from his twin sister…or both. In any case, it is a definite reminder of how we all need to be connected. Emotionally, spiritually and physically! Kangaroos–I guess they have know this since the beginning of time.
The Power of a Mother’s Kangaroo Love
3 09 2010
Twenty minutes after twin Jamie Ogg was born prematurely at 27 weeks into his mom Kate’s pregnancy, he was pronounced dead when doctors could not get him to breathe. He was placed across Kate’s bare chest and she held him to her skin while she and husband David spoke to him about his sister Emily and the hopes and dreams they had for him.
David and Kate Ogg with their twins on the Today Show – Credit Today Show website
Kate (who is from Australia along with her husband) continued practicing kangaroo love, where the holding of an infant with their skin next to the mother’s or father’s generates heat and bonding for the baby like he received in the womb…or like a baby kangaroo receives in its mother’s pouch.
After five minutes, they began to notice Jamie move, but the doctor said it was just a bodily reflex. This continued for two hours of the parents holding the baby next to their bare chests and talking gently and lovingly to him. They kept trying to get the doctor to come back in the room and see the baby moving, but the doctor kept insisting the baby was dead. Finally, the doctor consented and was shocked to see the baby alive..
The Today Show’s website quoted Dr. Lisa Eiland of the Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City, who said this seeming miracle may be well grounded in science:
What’s important is the warmth that the mother provides and the stimulation that the baby may have received from hearing the mother’s heartbeat. So those are all things that may have helped the baby in terms of going down the path to living as opposed to the path of death.
The twins are now 5 months old, and I read that both are doing well. Never underestimate how resilient children are. Never underestimate how healing a hug can be. Never, ever underestimate the power of love, especially a mother’s love.
Amazingly miraculous !!
Never ever heard of this before. I read the story and was amazed. What a joy to those parents. Here they had given up on a baby that everone thought was dead. What if the mother never held that baby so close to her-he would not have survived. Just shows how great the human spirit can be. After hearing about this, my belief that miracles can and do happen.