'Kangaroo' cuddle saves Australian baby

September 1, 2010

Sydney: An Australian couple on Wednesday spoke of how they believe the skin-to-skin “kangaroo” cuddle they gave their newborn baby saved the infant's life after their doctor had given him up for dead.

Speaking to Australian television, Kate and David Ogg said medical staff told them that tiny Jamie – delivered prematurely at just 27 weeks and weighing only 1kg – could not be saved. They said their doctor, who was not named in the Channel Seven report, spent 20 minutes trying to resuscitate the child before giving them the bad news.

"He turned to look at me while his hands were still on the bed and said, 'Have you chosen a name for your son?' And we said his name was going to be Jamie. He turned around and said, 'We've lost Jamie. Jamie didn't make it.'"

Given the tiny baby to hold, Kate gently placed him on her bare chest and cuddled him in what is known as the "kangaroo" care method, named after the hopping Australian marsupial which carries its young in a pouch.

In this position, Jamie would have been able to hear his mother's heartbeat and feel the warmth of her skin. "He started gasping more and more regularly and I'm like, 'Oh my God what is going on? Then a short time later he opened his eyes," Kate said of the two-hour experience, which Channel Seven said was backed by hospital reports.

"Coming back from the dead sounds pretty miraculous," she added.

Kate and David said they sent a message to the doctor that Jamie seemed to be showing signs of life but were informed that his movements were natural reflexes and there was no way he could be alive.

"I would say that we would have been the only two people in the hospital that believed the possibility of him coming back after he started showing signs of life," David said.

The couple, who are about to take their thriving five-month-old son and his twin sister to the United States for media appearances, said they were astonished at the interest their story had generated around the world.

"Kangaroo care, it sounds cute, it sounds fun. It helped bring our baby boy around," Kate said.