Newborn feline death

Question
Hello,
My cat, who was rescued as a stray 5 years ago, had a difficult labor and delivery of one larger male.  When she was in labor, she was in distress and had a lot of thick drool hanging from her mouth.  I called a vet, they told me that was normal.  They recommended I put her in a closet and keep an eye on her.  By the next afternoon, her labor stopped.  I called the vet.  They were concerned and had me bring her in to see them ASAP.  They found a single large kitten.  They performed an emergency c-section.  The kitten took a while to revive from birth, but he came around and had a good heart beat.  We brought them home that night.  The mother at first was a little sleepy.  We helped by coaxing him to nurse.  He was having bowel movements.  We continued helping until the mother was more awake.  By the next evening she was warming him and letting him nurse on his own.  I checked on them three times the third evening.  The mother kept laying on him.  I did not notice him eating.  One of the times I checked on him, I stroked him with my index finger.  He was warm.  He did not like that, he meowed pretty load and the mother covered him up and growled at me.  I turned of the light and left them. The next morning at around 4:30 am I went in to check on them  I could not find him.  The mother was laying her chest and head on him.  I heard the mother meowing at 6:30 am same morning.  She wanted out.  I let her out, I checked on the kitten. He was breathing.  About twenty to thirty minutes later I had to force her to go back into the bathroom where they were staying.  I noticed then that the kitten looked dead.  He was not breathing.  We started to rub and blow into his mouth, after 15 minutes we have up.  He was gone.  I am so upset.  We tried so much for this little guy to make it and he did not.  Is it normal for a litter of one to not make it?  I am not sure why he passed.  It keep wondering if I should have made the kitten eat the night before?  I wonder if I should have moved him, when i noticed she was laying on top of him earlier in the morning.  Can you please help me.  I need some closure to allow this very sad situation to pass.

Answer
Hi Dawn,

I'm sorry that you had to go through something like that. It sounds like the kitten passed from something that was wrong with him not from the mom doing anything. There is a lot of different things that could have happened to the little one. The most likely is that he had an aneurysm. This will sometimes happen to kittens. There is also something called fading kitten syndrome. It is something like SIDS in babies. I hope this helped you.  Again,I am very sorry for your loss.

Ciao, Karen