This was posted on mothering.com's lactivism forum

http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=900438

Janice Reynolds

 

 

 

China Earthquake - Baby Survival Stories! 

  _____  

Under the rubbles, dead mothers tightly held their babies; baby girl stayed
alive by breastfeeding from dead mother
Singtao News (written in Chinese)
http://hk.news.yahoo.com/080517/60/2u63i.html

In Duijangyan, Sichuan, a young mother tightly held her baby girl, who was
about 3 to 4 months old, while using her own shoulders to stop the roof from
falling onto her baby. The mother slowly lost her life, however the baby in
her arms was still breastfeeding from her dead mother, until the baby was
rescued. In Beichuan, another mother who also died using her body to protect
her baby, left the last message to her baby: "my dearest baby, if you can
live through this, you have to remember that I love you."

In the afternoon of May 13th, the second day after the Sichuan earthquake,
scores of rescue workers were digging through a residential area of
Duijanyan, looking for survivors. A volunteer doctor said that under the
rubbles, they found a young mother holding a 3-4 months old baby. The mother
was curling her body, her head lowered, and she had no sign of life, however
her shirt was lifted up, and the baby girl in her arms was still sucking on
mother's nipples.

Doctor wept as he recounted the scene, "At that moment, we saw a red
(lively) little face, against the dead mother's gray breasts that were
covered with dusts.it was such a contrast. Everyone at the scene cried.

"I can't imagine, a dead mother was still breastfeeding her own child. From
the way she was holding the baby, you can tell that she was protecting her
child, or perhaps the mother put her nipple into the baby's mouth just
before the mother died. We carefully took the baby out. The moment the baby
was taken away from her mother's nipple, the baby cried."



In Beichuan, rescue workers also found another dead mother protecting her
child: she was kneeling down, bowing her back; both arms on the ground
supporting her body - her posture was like someone kowtowing, however her
body was crushed so badly that it was deformed, and she was dead. 

Since it looked like she was protecting something underneath her, rescue
workers carefully removed the rocks and stones around her. They found a baby
who was around 3, 4 months old underneath her body. It was because the
mother used her own body to block the falling wall, the baby was
miraculously completely unharmed. When being taken out, the baby was even
sleeping peacefully.

A nurse removed the blanket from the baby to examine her, and found a cell
phone tucked inside the blanket. Doctor looked at the screen of the cell
phone, and saw a text message left by the baby's mother, "my dearest baby,
if you can live through this, you have to remember that I love you."

 


             ***********************************************

Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html
To reach list owners: [log in to unmask]
Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask]
COMMANDS:
1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail
2. To start it again: set lactnet mail
3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome