Imagine if the bond between Mother and baby was so strong that skin to skin touch could bring a Mother back from the dead!
The power of touch is something incredible as I hear the story of Emma De Silva and her fight for survival, I am brought to tears and hope with all of my heart she pulls through and can watch her beloved baby grow up.
This story teaches me the strength of a Mother's bond and the power it offers each of them.
I have since started doing daily baby massage on Taylor, she is 15 months old and an extremely active little girl.
Once a day after a nappy change I give her a massage as well.
She is calm and peaceful and she whispers away to me and points out where she would like to be massaged next. I often get a foot in my face saying, "here Mummy, I don't forget this leg"
The joy and peace it brings to both of us is special.
It's a time out from our busy days activities and the world seems to stand still even if its just for a moment.
New Idea is doing a beautiful story on Em and it comes out this Monday the 12th September.
On the 14th of March 2011, Emma De Silva, her nineteen day old daughter Eloise and dog Pierre set out for their daily afternoon walk. Three hundred metres from home, a car mounted the curb, knocking Emma into the air, before colliding with Eloise in her pram. Eloise suffered minor brain bleeds and a broken shoulder. To this day, Emma has failed to regain consciousness and remains in a deep coma.
The Emma De Silva Foundation has been established in order to help Emma's husband Peter with the mounting costs of running a home and looking after baby Eloise.
www.iaim.org.au
Or contact Ana via email . bubandme@y7mail.com
THE OFFICIAL STORY
DEEP down Peter De Silva was dreading Mothers' Day - the first since his wife Emma had given birth to their daughter Eloise in February.
Critically ill Emma, 32, had spent the past eight weeks in a coma and, as much as he wished she would wake up to share the day with their baby, Mr De Silva held little hope.
Walking into her intensive care room at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital that Sunday morning, Mr De Silva expected his wife to be unconscious, as she had been each day since she and Eloise were hit by a car on March 14.
"(But) Mother's Day produced for me the greatest miracle of all," he said.
"I trudged towards Emma not expecting to see her staring at me, her left eye open and a smile on her face.
"You're awake," Mr De Silva yelled, before bursting into tears and hugging Emma tightly. Overwhelmed at his wife's improvement - one doctors feared the critically injured woman might never achieve - Mr De Silva placed Eloise, now three months old, in her mother's arms.
"I watched the smile spread like the first rays of sunlight across Emma's face," he said.
"And I could not take my eyes off Eloise, who stared at her mother. I wondered what she would be thinking about."
What happened next was Mr De Silva's special gift.
"I looked up and there was Emma looking at me, her lips pursed together," he said.
"Yes, I got a kiss. It was the first time I had kissed my wife since I said goodbye to her that fateful day. Then we spent our first Mothers' Day cuddling ... and for the first five minutes Emma was conscious and then fell back into a deep slumber."
Mrs De Silva suffered horrific head injuries when an out-of-control car mounted the kerb at St Peters, in inner-west Sydney, where she was pushing then 19-day-old Eloise in her pram.
The pram spared Eloise serious injury but she still suffered a broken shoulder and a minor head injury.
Doctors have been unable to give Mr De Silva a prognosis on his wife's future because the brain is so complex and "they simply don't know", he said.
But for the first time in two months - which to Mr De Silva has felt like an eternity - he has hope as his wife's condition improves every day.
"Emma times her waking periods for Eloise. As soon as I walk in with her, Emma tilts her head to one side, her left eye opens, her smile constant," Mr De Silva said.
She is even learning to feed her baby again.
"I hold Eloise, and Emma holds the bottle ... she pats Eloise's back to help her burp, and cuddles her and strokes her hair."
From devastation to joy, Mr De Silva has experienced every emotion in between while witnessing his wife fight for life. He and Eloise visit Emma every day, hoping the bond between mother and baby will help her recovery.
In the meantime, Mr De Silva is at home, looking after their baby girl.
Now there is hope that they can all be together as a family again: "I am looking forward to being a husband again."
Donations to the Emma De Silva Foundation can be made at emmadesilva.com