Earthquake in China

[Arynielle]

My mom was just on the MSN Asian news website and told me a heartbreaking (though touching) tale. A mother was standing under a bridge with her three-month-old child when it collapsed so she held her daughter to her chest and rested on her knees and elbows, trying to keep the weight of the bridge off of her child. Days into the search, rescuers saw that the mother had died but they heard a child's cry so they looked beneath the body. The daughter had survived, and with the baby was some text typed into the mother's cellphone which read, "My dearest daughter, if you live to see this, please remember that your mother loves you."

I cried.

[Kriven]

That's... I hope that child lives a good life.

One thing makes me wonder though, how did the baby survive for days?

[Arynielle]

You don't know much about babies, do you? A healthy baby that young could easily survive without food or water for days. In fact, the ancient Greeks (or some other culture around that period of time), after the birth of a new child, would leave that baby in a shallow river for three days. If the baby survived, then they would raise it. If not, then it was obviously not strong enough to live. That was life.

I want to adopt that poor, little girl. ;_;

[Kriven]

Are you sure that wasn't just the Spartans? x.x;

I thought babies need constant food and care?

[Arynielle]

It might've been the Spartans but that's not the point. The point is that really young babies can survive a few days without such care-- it wasn't that long anyway, probably only two or three days tops when they found the poor thing.

[Jukka]

I had no idea that babies could live like that either, interesting.

But yeah, that's such a sad story It's amazing the baby survived, considering there had to be quite a bit of weight on her.

[Sleepy Jack]

I've heard a story of an infant living over 20 days without care. Maybe it's not true or just some freak tale, but either way I don't doubt that a baby could 2 or 3 days uncared for.

But that's pretty touching. Very kind, not to mention brave, of the mother. If I weren't so emotionless I would be feeling that one emotion that accompanies things like this. I guess sadness, but it's a little different.

[♫ Busan ♫]

That is a sad story. I didn't know babies could live that long without care, although I'm having trouble picturing in my head how the baby got water.

[Arynielle]

I don't think the baby got water-- babies are wired a bit differently than adults. For a baby so young, I don't think she needed water during those few days necessarily.

[Kriven]

There may have been milk left in the mother, and if she brought the baby to her chest while defending it, it's not unlikely for the baby to have drank some when it needed it.

[Arynielle]

I doubt that milk scenario; I'm sure the mother had a shirt on , Kriv. x.x; In fact, I highly doubt that the baby got any nutrients at all-- it's not that difficult for a baby to survive two or three days without care. Having been born from a mother only three months ago, she isn't wired like most adults are. In someways, babies are more durable than adults-- babies just born from a mother's womb actually know to hold their breath. It's like a natural instinct. That's why, if taught at a really young age, humans learn how to swim very well.

[Kriven]

Maybe the baby had alien laser claws and ripped through the shirt >.>

[Arynielle]

'cause we all know that that's totally possible.

[♫ Busan ♫]

Biology has once again made my head explode. I thought humans couldn't live that long without water.

[P-chan]

Aww, now I'm all sad. ;_;