The Power Of Mother’s Love

This story is a little long but well worth the time to read. It perfectly illustrates not only the amazing power of Love, but also the truly inspiring power of Touch.

---

When doctors told Carolyn Isbister that her tiny premature daughter would die within 20 minutes, she had to prepare herself for the worst.

Tiny Rachael had just been born minutes before, weighing just 1.4lb (0.64kg), and her heart was only beating once every ten seconds. But Miss Isbister was determined to have just one cuddle with her daughter and to savor the one precious moment she had, so she picked up tiny Rachael and cuddled her close.

And it was a cuddle that has amazed doctors by saving the baby’s life. The warmth of her mother’s skin actually kickstarted Rachael’s heart into beating properly, which allowed her to take tiny breaths of her own.

Four months later – the baby who was so tiny that the doctors gave up on her life – has been allowed home, thanks to that precious life saving cuddle from her mother.

Miss Isbister, 36, from West Lothian, said: “Rachael has been such a little fighter – it is a miracle that she is here at all. When she was born the doctors told us that she would die within 20 minutes because her heart wasn’t beating properly and she wasn’t breathing. But that one precious cuddle saved her life. I’ll never forget it.”

Miss Isbister, a chemist, and her partner David Elliott, 35, an electronic engineer, were thrilled when she fell pregnant. At the 20 week scan at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, doctors told them that she was carrying a girl and they decided to name her Rachael. But at 24 weeks, Miss Isbister went into premature labour after she developed an infection in her womb.

Miss Isbister, who also has two children Samuel, 10, and Kirsten, 8, from a previous marriage, said: “We were just terrified we were going to lose her. I had been bleeding throughout the pregnancy, and had suffered three miscarriages before falling pregnant with Rachael, so we really didn’t think there was much hope.”

When Rachael was born, weighing 1.4lb, doctors told the couple that their daughter would only live for 20 minutes. She wasn’t breathing and she was grey and lifeless. Her heart was only beating once every 10 seconds.

Miss Isbister said: “The doctor just took one look at her and said no. They didn’t even try to help her with her breathing as they said it would just prolong her dying. Everyone just gave up on her.”

The doctors told the couple to say their goodbyes to their daughter, but Miss Isbister decided that she would give her daughter the only cuddle she would ever have. So she lifted her out of her hospital blanket and placed her on her chest, with skin to skin contact.

She said: “I didn’t want her die being cold. So I lifted her out of her blanket and put against my skin to warm her up. Her feet were so cold. It was the only cuddle I was going to have with her, so I wanted to remember the moment.”

But after 20 minutes tiny Rachael was still alive. Then a miracle happened. She started taking tiny breaths on her own, and her heart started beating more regularly.

Miss Isbister said: “We couldn’t believe it – and neither could the doctors. She let out a tiny cry. When she was still breathing after four hours and her heart was beating more regularly, the doctors came in and said there was still no hope for her, but I still wasn’t letting go of her. We had her blessed by the hospital chaplain, and waited for her to slip away. But she still hung on. And then amazingly the pink color began to return to her cheeks. She literally was turning from grey to pink before our eyes, and she began to warm up too.”

After 48 hours, the doctors decided to put her on a ventilator to help with her breathing and she was transferred to the intensive care unit.

Miss Isbister said: “The doctors said that she had proved she was a fighter and that she now deserved some intensive care as there was some hope. She had done it all on her own – without any medical intervention or drugs. She had clung onto life – and it was all because of that cuddle. It had warmed up her body enough for her to start fighting.”

Because Rachel hadn’t had any oxygen for four hours, doctors warned the couple that there was a high risk she had been brain damaged. But a scan showed no evidence of any damage at all.

As the days passed, Rachael slowly began to gain in strength and put on weight. She had laser treatment on her eyes to save her sight as the blood vessels hadn’t had chance to develop properly in the womb. And she also had six blood transfusions.

Miss Isbister added: “We couldn’t believe that she was doing so well. Her heart rate and breathing would suddenly sometimes drop without warning, but she just got stronger and stronger.”

After five weeks she was taken off the ventilator and Miss Isbister was able to hold and breastfeed her. Then after four months in hospital, they were finally allowed to take her home – a day which they never thought they would see.

At six months old, she now weighs 8lb (3.63kg) – the same as a newborn baby – and she has a healthy appetite.

Miss Isbister said: “She is doing so well. When we finally brought her home, the doctors told us that she was a remarkable little girl. And most of all, she just loves her cuddles. She will sleep for hours, just curled into my chest. It was that first cuddle which saved her life – and I’m just so glad I trusted my instinct and picked her up when I did. Otherwise she wouldn’t be here today.”

Photos:

By WORLDWIDE FEATURES

Farewell to a Mother

“MY MOTHER GETS DRESSED

It is impossible for my mother to do even
the simplest things for herself anymore
so we do it together,
get her dressed.

I choose the clothes without
zippers or buckles or straps,
clothes that are simple
but elegant, and easy to get into.

Otherwise, it's just like every other day.
After bathing, getting dressed.
The stockings go on first.
This time, it's the new ones,

the special ones with opaque black triangles
that she's never worn before,
bought just two weeks ago
at her favorite department store.

We start with the heavy, careful stuff of the right toes
into the stocking tip
then a smooth yank past the knob of her ankle
and over her cool, smooth calf

then the other toe
cool ankle, smooth calf
up the legs
and the pantyhose is coaxed to her waist.

You're doing great, Mom,
I tell her
as we ease her body
against mine, rest her whole weight against me

to slide her black dress
with the black empire collar
over her head
struggle her fingers through the dark tunnel of the sleeve.

I reach from the outside
deep into the dark for her hand,
grasp where I can't see for her touch.
You've got to help me a little here, Mom

I tell her
then her fingertips touch mine
and we work her fingers through the sleeve's mouth
together, then we rest, her weight against me

before threading the other fingers, wrist, forearm, elbow, bicep
and now over the head.
I gentle the black dress over her breasts,
thighs, bring her makeup to her,

put some color on her skin.
Green for her eyes.
Coral for her lips.
I get her black hat.

She's ready for her company.
I tell the two women in simple, elegant suits
waiting outside the bedroom, come in.
They tell me, She's beautiful.

Yes, she is, I tell them.
I leave as they carefully
zip her into
the black body bag.

Three days later,
I dream a large, green
suitcase arrives.
When I unzip it,

my mother is inside.
Her dress matches
her eyeshadow, which matches
the suitcase

perfectly. She's wearing
coral lipstick.
"I'm here," she says, smiling delightedly, waving
and I wake up.

Four days later, she comes home
in a plastic black box
that is heavier than it looks.
In the middle of a meadow,

I learn a naked
more than naked.
I learn a new way to hug
as I tighten my fist

around her body,
my hand filled with her ashes
and the small stones of bones.
I squeeze her tight

then open my hand
and release her
into the smallest, hottest sun,
a dandelion screaming yellow at the sky.” 
― Daphne Gottlieb, Final Girl

“love. she liberated me to life, she continued to do that. and when she was in her final sickness i went out to san francisco and the doctor said she had 3 weeks to live, i asked her "would you come to north carolina?" she said yes. she had emphysema and lung cancer, i brought her to my home. she lived for a year and a half ..and when she was finally in extraneous she was on oxygen and fighting cancer for her life and i remembered her liberating me, and i said i hoped i would be able to liberate her, she deserved that from me. she deserved a great daughter and she got one. so in her last days, i said "i understand some people need permission to go… as i understand it you may have done what god put you here to do. you were a great worker, you must've been a great lover cause a lot of men and if I'm not wrong maybe a couple of woman risked their lives to love you. you were a piss poor mother of small children but a you were great mother of young adults, and if you need permission to go, i liberate you". and i went back to my house, and something said go back- i was in my pajamas, i jumped in my car and ran and the nurse said "she just gone". you see love liberates. it doesn't bind, love says i love you. i love you if you're in china, i love you if you're across town, i love you if you're in harlem, i love you. i would like to be near you, i would like to have your arms around me i would like to have your voice in my ear but thats not possible now, i love you so go. love liberates it doesn't hold. thats ego. love liberates.”
― Maya Angelou

“I smiled and looked at her- there she was with such a genuine grin and twinkle in her eyes. I kissed my mother on her forehead and took a long look in to her hazel eyes. I wondered when I would have the next chance to see her as I whispered, 'I love you." Mother didn't respond. She didn't look well- she had a tint of green and yellow to her skin and her thinning hair was a dull salt and pepper color, cut extra short and clinging to her scalp. She had no makeup on, which told me she just had no more energy.

I began to walk out of her room and turned to look at her. I wanted to run up to her, shake her, and beg her to tell me she loved me and was proud of me. But when I looked at her, she was already sleeping.” 

Mother Quotes from a daughter

By the time a woman realizes her mother was right, she has a daughter who thinks she’s wrong.

 Call your mother. Tell her you love her

.“...you are my rainbow to keep. My eyes will always be watching you; never will I lose sight of you.” ― Vesna Bailey

“All I know is that I carried you for nine months. I fed you, I clothed you, I paid for your college education. Friending me on Facebook seems like a small thing to ask in return.”
― Jodi Picoult, Sing You Home

“Probably there is nothing in human nature more resonant with charges than the flow of energy between two biologically alike bodies, one of which has lain in amniotic bliss inside the other, one of which has labored to give birth to the other. The materials are here for the deepest mutuality and the most painful estrangement.

“I'm blessed and I couldn't be more grateful. Do you want to know why? Because I'm a mother, but that's only half of it. I'm blessed because, when I need to, I can still just be a daughter. I get the feeling that there is nothing more precious than to have both of these roles, simultaneously.” 
― Adrienne Trupiano

“The more a daughter knows the details of her mother's life [...] the stronger the daughter.” 

“My mother’s dress bears the stains of her life:
blueberries, blood, bleach,
and breast milk;
She cradles in her arms a lifetime
of love and sorrow;
Its brilliance nearly blinds me.”
― Brenda Sutton Rose


“A mother’s love is like an everlasting bed of roses, that continues to blossom. A mother’s love bears strength, comfort, healing and warmth. Her beauty is compared to a sunny day that shines upon each rose petal and inspires hope.”
― Ellen J. Barrier

Mother Quotes from Son

“A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.”
― Washington Irving

“But there's a story behind everything. How a picture got on a wall. How a scar got on your face. Sometimes the stories are simple, and sometimes they are hard and heartbreaking. But behind all your stories is always your mother's story, because hers is where yours begin.”
― Mitch Albom, For One More Day

 The only love that I really believe in is a mother’s love for her children.” ― Karl Lagerfeld

“My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her.”
― George Washington

“Children are knives, my mother once said. They don’t mean to, but they cut. And yet we cling to them, don’t we, we clasp them until the blood flows.

Joanne Harris

“I realized when you look at your mother, you are looking at the purest love you will ever know.”
― Mitch Albom, 

“Art is the child of nature in whom we trace the features of the mothers face.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow