Mother saves her 20oz baby with a cuddle

by Christina Sbarro (Subscribe to Christina Sbarro's posts) Dec 10th 2007 8:41AM

Categories: Newborns, Pregnancy & Birth, Safety

I remember the moment Bean arrived with a final (exhausted, excruciating) push, and was placed on my belly his umbilical cord still beating. I'd read about this part of delivery before hand, and had decided that it was what I wanted for my baby's first moments in the world: skin to skin contact, burrowed into the warmth of my chest, close to my heart under soft, heated blankets. I was smitten with wonder in that moment. His eyelashes were wet and tangled. His eyes wide and dark and unblinking. He looked straight at me; stopping mid cry the moment he was placed on my warm skin.

This memory came flooding back when I read about Carolyn Isbister, who reached out to snuggle her 20 ounce baby--forsaken by doctors who assumed she only had minutes to live. The baby's heart was beating irregularly: only once every ten seconds; and her tiny body was cold.

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

Yet while she was holding her baby, skin to skin, against her chest ,something miraculous occured. The baby's heart began to beat regularly, and she let out a tiny cry. Four months later, an 8lb Rachel was allowed to go home with her parents. Wow. Welcome to the world, little Rachel!

Comments (31)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Jenn 12-10-2007 @ 8:57AM

That is a beautiful story :)

lisa 12-10-2007 @ 10:26AM

how wonderfully amazing and how precious....and to think women are allowed to kill their unborn babies at this same time of pregnancy...so i ask a question of all so-called pro-choicers...when does life begin or is this still just a blob of tissue as you claim that it is?...just a thought

Ethel 12-10-2007 @ 10:12AM

I'm so glad that mom did the right thing for her baby, and I am sure she keeps thinking the same thing too.

Joy 12-10-2007 @ 10:52AM

What an amazing thing to read. This is so great.

michelle 12-10-2007 @ 11:32AM

I felt that I just had to reply. This was a precious and wonderful story of the power of love and skin-to-skin contact on a newborn by it's mother.
However, no doctor or otherwise would perform and procedure to terminate a pregnancy at 24 weeks unless the baby/feotus was already passed away and had not misscarried or there was severe risk of death to the mother. Be informed if you want to destroy an otherwise beautiful story.

lisa 12-10-2007 @ 11:42AM

ummm wrong answer...and it is a beautiful story...no lie there but there are doctors who perform abortions at that time and there is nothing wrong with the baby just the mothers state of mind...how do i know because i tried to help in the situation...ever heard of partial birth...baby is alive and kicking...so you need to be informed...i simply just asked a question...not try to ruin a beautiful lovely story...just asking for someone who thinks abortion is ok to answer this one

michelle 12-10-2007 @ 12:16PM

hmmm someone really needs to learn how to just be "nice" and leave her podium at home.

SKL 12-10-2007 @ 1:40PM

Gosh, this is wonderful, but I can't help wondering how many other babies have been thought "non viable" but actually could have survived had they been given the same chance. I hope this spurs changes in the procedures in births like this.

I agree with Lisa too.

Caelligh 12-10-2007 @ 1:43PM

I am adamantly pro-choice, so I'll step up to answer this one.

"Michael Gazzaniga, a member of the President's Council on
Bioethics...says that current neurology suggests that a fetus doesn't possess enough neural structure to harbor consciousness until about 26 weeks, when it first seems to react to pain. Before that, the fetal...EEG as flat and unorganized as that of someone brain-dead."
(source: http://www.slate.com/id/2120872/ )

Meanwhile, 60% of abortions occur before week 8, 88% by week 12. 1.4% are performed after the 21st week. So while abortions do occur this late in pregnancy, they are quite rare, and I suspect the vast majority of them are done in emergency circumstances. (source:
http://iier.isciii.es/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5407a1.htm)

michelle 12-10-2007 @ 2:12PM

Thank you Caelligh, that was put much more elloquently than I was able to at the moment. I tried, but thank you for the links to back up my own words.
One should also remember that the abortion is not something someone strives to do or to have done. Just because someone is pro-choice does not mean they want to have one, it means that option is available to them. I know many a staunch pro-choicer who has chosen not to when the situation arose for them.

Sandyone 12-10-2007 @ 3:47PM

That's a very small percentage (1.4%), but in real numbers, it's still over 18,000 babies (from 2002 data of US abortions) who were, quite obviously, more than just blobs of tissue but were aborted anyway.

Baby Rachel gained 7 pounds in 4 months? Wowzers!!!! That is amazing. Add common sense mother-love to the medical mix and it's simply marvelous.

Michelle 12-10-2007 @ 3:26PM

As the parent to a fetal-baby born at 25 weeks gestation, I can guarantee you, a baby does, indeed, react to pain earlier than 26 weeks. He could not react by crying out, because he had a ventilator tube down his throat and not enough lung capacity besides, he could not react by thrashing about, because he did not have the energy, muscle tone or stamina, and he was weighed down with numerous tubes and wires that weighed more than his 26 oz. But he most certainly had enough brain activity to react to pain.

Just wanted to clear up THAT misinformation, from someone who's been in the trenches.

Inger 12-10-2007 @ 8:03PM

This is a wonderful story, and I'm very happy for the family.

Can we not get into a spat about abortion? It just gets ugly so easily...

Joy 12-10-2007 @ 5:40PM

I agree with Inger. How did such a wonderful story get into a debate about abortion?

Sandyone 12-10-2007 @ 9:34PM

Joy, I think it's because pro-lifers find it difficult to believe how people can continue to assign worthiness based on 'wantedness'.

The only difference between this baby and the scads of others who were aborted is that this mother wanted this baby and gave her her touch as a final gift. I just don't see how anyone can actually justify that this miracle baby is actually more worthy of life than the ones killed in abortion. Being pro-choice says just that.

We bandy about "facts" such as "no doctor would ever do that" and "a fetus can't feel pain before X age". These are the "facts" on which people base their decision to be pro-choice. They're completely bogus facts, but they allow people to convince themselves that abortion is only done when necessary. Michelle even thanked Cailleigh for supporting the "fact" that no doctor would do this when, in actuality, Cailleigh quoted the fact that 1.4% of abortions *are* done under these circumstances. Is Michelle thinking about her views or is she merely saying what she'd prefer to believe and misreading the statistics to support that view?

Abortion is ugly and it is a part of our lives. If people want to keep it legal, they should at least understand what it is they're supporting. People who want to see our society stop embracing abortion as a sacred right have to point out the inconsistencies.

This *is* a beautiful story about life, but the story is tarnished by our society's idolization of abortion choice, not by Lisa's posing the question (to which she hasn't received an actual answer).

bb 12-10-2007 @ 9:39PM

What a lovely story and pictures to go with it. :)

Michelle 12-11-2007 @ 8:54PM

SKL,
You speak of *viability*, but what about quality of life? This story of a Mother's love regulating her baby's heartbeat and body temperature is a wonderful, miraculous, and touching one, indeed. I cried tears of joy for her while reading it, because I know what it is like to think your newborn, who shouldn't be born yet, is not going to make it, only to realize, he is. I also cried in sorrow for her, because I also know what it is like to not know what the future holds for a baby born too soon, too small.

My son got lucky. Even though he was born at 25 weeks gestation, weighing 26 oz and spent 3 mos in NICU, including a heart surgery at 11 days old. He is now 3, and has *escaped* with mild CP, which was diagnosed at age 2, he receives physical and occupational therapy, weekly, through the public school preschool special-ed program, which he attends 3 days a week, since he graduated from our state's birth to 3 Early Intervention Program. And, just recently, we have started facing the fact, and trying to get help for, Sensory Integration Disorder. Keep in mind, he is only 3, we may find more preemie-related issues as he gets older. This is not including all the issues he had upon release that have since resolved. We only got out this lucky, because he avoided a brain-bleed while in NICU. That would have made his issues 10-fold or more.

I know many preemies born several weeks later, with more severe problems. Some will never be able to live on their own, hold down a job, raise a family.

I'm not saying this family, or any family, should not have saved a baby this early. Heroic measures were not even used in the beginning, anyway. So, we don't know the conversations they had surrounding this very issue. I don't know what I would have done, had I known I was really only 25 weeks pregnant instead of the 27.4 I thought I was when they informed me they had to perform a c-section before the baby and I died. I start to cry just thinking of having to make that decision, especially considering my Mother is a NICU RN and she sees first-hand what these babies(fetuses) experience, and I know she would probably have tried to convince me toward comfort-care only. It would be hypocritical and presumptuous of me to try to tell any family what decision to make concerning the care and life of their child. But at least I have a platform on which to stand.

As far as I can tell, there was absolutely nothing wrong with the procedures in this birth. They did what the parents asked them to do. As long as they didn't try to stong-arm the parents into heroic measures they didn't want, or convince them to just let the baby die, when the parents wanted her saved at all costs, the correct procedures were followed.

SKL 12-11-2007 @ 10:12PM

Michelle, I see things quite differently. It seems to me that the docs decided this child was doomed to die, and therefore should not be given basic care such as being warmed and having human contact. The docs were obviously wrong and my guess is that this isn't the first or last time they have been wrong. The only difference was the mom's action. Most of the time patients just blindly follow what the docs say - if they say "doomed" the parents give up. We now have reason to believe this may have led to avoidable deaths.

It is not up to us to evaluate the quality of another person's life. There are many people who are not physically or mentally perfect, who nevertheless are glad to be alive. Americans have gotten used to the idea that if "I" wouldn't like to live that way, "nobody" would. This is horrible logic.

All I'm saying is that maybe docs should put the babies on the moms' chest even if they think they are "doomed." It seems a minor adjustment to potentially save a life. Most doctors I know would be happy to do this if they thought it had the least chance of saving a baby.

Michelle 12-11-2007 @ 11:03PM

SKL,
The only reason this baby was put on her Mother's chest was because they felt she was not going to survive and apparently her parents did not request heroic measures, instead they requested this tiny moment to meet their child, have her blessed and let her go. If the doctors HAD been trying to save this baby, there would have been no time for family bonding at that moment. A team of NICU doctors, nurses and respiratory therapists would have whooshed in and begun work to stabilize the fetal-infant for transport to her new home for the next several months, the hospital NeoNatal Intensive Care Unit, where the parents would not be able to touch their child for weeks, let alone hold her. And if you come in contact with someone who came in contact with someone else who had a cold? You shouldn't even come in to gaze at your baby through the plexiglass of the isolette. The mother will be a perfect candidate for PPD because she will feel guilt over the circumstances surrounding her child's birth, guilt over leaving her child in someone else's care, sleep deprived because she has to pump every 2 hours round the clock to build her milk supply, even though the baby is getting a cocktail through a central line in her belly button, and the breast milk is going in the freezer. Then when she does finally get to hold her baby, she will feel overewhelmed, because her baby's saturation levels crash and the nurses swoop in and take over again.

The baby will spend weeks on a ventillator, which will cause a hydrocephalus, ROP, which will lead to blindness, CP, restriction to a wheelchair, etc. .. . The baby will get a staph infection, have surgery, have numerous setbacks, possibly come home with a monitor and an oxygen tank, where you will have to barricade yourself inside, and not let anyone in, for fear of an illness that would send your baby back to the hospital.

OK, so I kinda went off on a tangent there. My point is, there is no lovey, dovey baby on the chest moment when you have a micro-preemie sick fetal-baby born. There are medical professionals, medical equipment, intubation tubes, and isolette dust as your baby is rushed away from you. They only got the cuddle time out of respect for their wishes for their first and last moment with their daughter. For a change, I think the doctor's were doing the right thing.

I would never try to tell someone their life is not worth living, BUT we do need to be asking ourselves, and the doctors as they try to outdo each other by saving fetuses at earlier and earlier gestations, where is the line? Because the things they have to do to these babies in NICU to force them to survive, sometimes can seem more inhumane than just letting them go.

And ask a surviving preemie who suffers pain every day, who cannot hold a job, who has no control of their neurological system, or any of the vast *side-effects* that would be considered major and slightly more than life-altering, if they feel it is worth it. Some of their answers might suprise you!

SKL 12-11-2007 @ 11:35PM

Michelle, we are not understanding each other. Let me state it simply. When it looks like a baby is NOT going to survive, put it on the mom's chest and see if that helps. If not, no harm done. What is the problem with that?

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