Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Our best friend Claire has chosen to share her story in order to raise awareness of this important and very small charity.

July 2016 was supposed to be one of the happiest month of our lives, with us both looking forward to having our first child, and starting a family, but that all changed in seconds. Our gorgeous baby son William was born via emergency c section on 2.7.2016 due to complications that were not diagnosed.

I had had a normal pregnancy overall, with minor problems of growth and the placenta being low lying. Growth scans showed these had been fixed. I was 38 weeks pregnant, when I started
to show blood which I presumed was 'The Plug'. After continuing to bleed for a few days, we went into hospital after being in touch with the midwives on the phone. After a couple of tests, everything was "perfect" so they decided to do a sweep, to help things along. During the sweep, I released a lot of blood which we later found out to be the baby's. At that point they thought I
had had a placental abruption. From this, I was rapidly taken into theatre for a c-section. If this heavy blood loss had occurred at home, I and the baby would have died. During the c-section, William was pulled from me without any noise, crying or otherwise. Myself and my husband Tom didn't realise this immediately. However, once Tom saw a boy, with
amazingly pale skin, floppy limbs and no movement, he realised there was a problem. He'd never seen a colour like it. The doctors tried resuscitating him, helped him to breathe, warm him
up and generally make him live. I couldn't see any of this but Tom tried to stay positive for me. We later found out that he had lost half of his blood, the oxygen was consequently not getting
taken to his vital organs and his brain. Immediately, our baby boy was taken away, without me seeing or hearing him, all this was so they could save his life.

After, we were eventually taken back to our room, a doctor explained that our baby boy was seriously ill having lost a lot of blood, had limited oxygen which had caused problems with his kidneys, liver, heart and brain. All of this was difficult to hear. We were stunned. He explained that our boy was in the middle of a blood transfusion and that he would be taken to a specialist unit in Newcastle to help save him. A cooling process had begun to reduce his temperature which would stop any further brain damage but it wouldn't fix any earlier damage. An ambulance would take him but we wouldn't be able to go with him- as I had just had major abdominal surgery. At this point, we still hadn't met our baby boy. But, Tom had the opportunity to see him in intensive care. He was excited but devastated that I wouldn't be able to do this. When Tom did see him, he looked normal, but so very pale yet pinker than before because of the blood transfusion. He took a picture then came back to show me.

We were numb. I didn't feel like I had had a baby. A mother should be able to see, cuddle and kiss her new born child. Later that evening, I did get to meet him but I was unable to touch him,
just look at him on all these wires and tubes ready to be transferred to Newcastle.

The next week was the hardest week of our lives, we were beside William 24/7 hoping and praying for his survival. Devastatingly, on 8.7.2016 William died in our arms and our lives were
totally changed forever. Serious investigations took place and after research and analysis it came to the conclusion
William died as a result of Vasa Praevia. A condition that could have been diagnosed with just a normal routine scan. The anger and heartbreak we have is unexplainable, knowing that William
could still be with us today if I had had a scan to check for Vasa Praevia, they could have safely delivered him via a C-section.

What is Vasa Praevia?
Vasa Praevia occurs when one or more of the baby’s placental or umbilical blood vessels across the entrance to the birth canal beneath the baby. When the cervix dilates or the membranes rupture, the unprotected vessels can tear, causing
rapid fetal haemorrhage. When the baby drops into the pelvis, the vessels can be compressed, compromising the baby’s
blood supply and causing oxygen deprivation.
It is thought that Vasa Praevia occurs in approximately 1:2,500 births. If the condition is not diagnosed prenatally, the fetal mortality rate is estimated to be as high as 95%.
In cases diagnosed prenatally (absent other congenital defect) the infant survival rate is 100%.

We are raising awareness because this shouldn't have happened to William and other babies, they shouldn't have been lost to this condition and could have survived. My best friends, Caroline (who was one of the very few to meet William) and Bex, are raising money and awareness about Vasa Praevia by running a half marathon. We need a routine scan during every pregnancy to identify Vasa Praevia to help save lives. We hope that with Caroline and Bex running the half marathon it will help raise money to help with the identification of Vasa Praevia and
consequently more babies will survive and lead happy healthy lives, reducing the devastation we've suffered, in other families.
We do have a beautiful 4 year old daughter, Olivia, who is amazing - however I found her pregnancy a huge struggle, we did find a private clinic in the UK that scanned for Vasa Praevia,
which put our minds at ease, but we shouldn't have had to do this if Vasa Praevia was part of a routine scan, this does show that the technology is out there. The innocence of pregnancy has been taken away from me.
We hope that from our story, you can help donate to Vasa Praevia raising awareness... in memory of our baby son William.

Thank you, Claire x

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