The Power Of A Mother's Love

A single mother who has faced homelessness, an abusive relationship and health struggles, Natalya Rahayu has endured a challenging life journey, but one thing keeps the 41-year-old going: her daughter.

- NATALYA RAHAYU

I first experienced what the life of a single mother would be like when I was 20 weeks pregnant. It was when my daughter’s father, John*, decided that he did not want to support the pregnancy financially.

My pregnancy was tough – I am diabetic, and my organs were working to their limits (and failing gradually) as the pregnancy progressed. I was advised by doctors to terminate the pregnancy or risk organ failure. My body was rejecting the pregnancy severely, but the baby inside me had a very strong heartbeat. Each time I was advised to terminate, I would ask the doctors to do an ultrasound to see if she was healthy. And she was! I decided to keep going until I couldn’t. Whatever the outcome was, I was willing to accept my fate.

The morning before I was scheduled to be wheeled into the operating theatre for my caesarean, John came. He reeked of alcohol and was drunk, so I told him to leave. The doctors and nurses told him to leave as well; he left without much resistance as he ironically did not want to make a scene. When I was being wheeled into the operating theatre, I started having seizures, which led to an emergency caesarean.

Amelia was born prematurely at 33 weeks on March 29, 2017 at 9.37am. She was warded in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for a week, and was then transferred to special care unit as she was born at 1.76kg; she needed to gain at least 2kg to be discharged.