Autumn Faith Locke came into this world at just 31 weeks - she is a fighter, but is in hospital 2 hours from where her parents, Albert and Emma,

live - we are asking for your help just to help them survive the next few months of looking after her.

Here is their story in Emma’s words …..

A big hello to you all, my name is Emma Locke I’m married to my soul mate and best friend Albert Locke. We have been together for two  years and married for one. We have tried for a baby since august 2017 but miscarried 5 times. Our little girls story began in March, when I became pregnant with Autumn Faith, as you can imagine this was the most amazing surprise ever! The pregnancy went on without any complications until 2 months ago, when  I started experiencing pains in my stomach. I was sent for a scan, it was then we found out that I was suffering from polyhydranios, basically this meant there was lots more water round baby than there should be but baby seemed ok. We carried on as normal and had a further scan to be told the water content was higher and that they were now concerned, but were sent on our way with a further scan date for three weeks later. However, on Thursday 18th of October at night I started to experience quite severe pains so phoned the midwife and she advised us to go and get checked out at our nearest hospital which was Aberystwth. We were expecting to be sent home with Braxton hicks (false contractions) however they did a test to see if I was in preterm labour and it came back positive so we were blue lighted to a hospital called Glan Clwyd in Rhyl, because Aberystwth cant take babys under 35 weeks gestation. We arrived in Glan Clwyd and they attempted to stop the labour by gavivinge 2 steriod injections, this seemed to work. Further scans, to see if  baby was head down, found baby had fluid on her bowels, after a day of monitoring I was transferred onto the ward to monitor my tightnings.  on Monday 22, I started getting bad pains again and at around 7am my hind waters broke, I was rushed back to labour ward where they monitored me further and then on Tuesday 23rd of October my forewaters broke

and my little girl, Autumn Faith, arrived into the world at just 31 weeks 5 days. She was rushed onto Intensive Care where they found she was bringing up yellow bile and was reassured it wasn’t a worry until she bought up green! But on the second day, it turned green and they became extremely concerned, an Xray, showed there was no air pockets around her bowel where as a normal healthy baby would have. The doctors phoned Alder Hey childrens hospital to see if they would take her as our daughter, Autumn-Faith Locke needed to possibly have surgery so off we went. When we arrived our little girl had to have a special scan with dye which was fed into her stomach to see where it would lead, unfortunately it stopped in her stomach and we were told she was needing  an operation that night, so at midnight on 25th of October she was rushed to theatre. Part of her bowel was missing and had to have it connected together  she got through the operation amazingly and came of the ventilator safely as well! Our little girl is doing well but could be a long slow road as she could be in hospital for a few more weeks.

Albert, my husband, has had to come out of work so that he can spend time with us and be there for me and our little girl which means finance is looking desperate - unfortunately our bills are suffering because of this, and along with other commitments. Christmas being round the corner, with 5 children between us is also somewhat frightening. The hospital is about 100 miles away (a long 2 hours) from home, from our family, children and friends. This is a massive challenge for us and will be for the next few months. It is certainly a whole new journey, so we are deeply grateful to those of you who share this journey with us and help us through. You have no idea how much every pound means,  so thank you for taking time to read our Autumn-Faiths story - and we wish you well and all the best.

Thank You

Emma, Albert and our precious Autumn Faith