Launching on Father’s Day, to Remember Bethan who would be 6 now.

‘Born in 2015’ was the slogan on the baby grow.  And she was, however 2015 was the year that changed everything. 

Danni called me at work, she hadn’t felt any movement overnight, and I (like most I’m sure) reassured her that everything would be fine, “have a bath, eat some chocolate’ that usually works!” But still no movement, we went to the hospital for a scan, still believing everything would be fine, still birth is one of those things we’ve all heard of, but it won’t happen to us.

That day it did.

Our beautiful daughter Bethan was still born 1 week before she was due to be born by c-section, we had only had a scan 6 days before to check her position, how could this happen? Why did it happen? What should we have done? Why didn’t we notice sooner? And a million other questions. 

You don’t always get the answer to all, if any of those questions, but with the help of Petals, and our amazing counsellor Sue we worked through them all. 

Counselling is a funny thing, still a bit taboo in this country, like you must have something wrong with you if you need counselling! I now think the opposite, you must have something wrong with you if you can’t see the benefit to it. 

Petals can’t save your baby, but they might save your marriage, or your life.They enable you to continue to parent your other children, they enable you to love again, to understand that your not at fault, nor is your partner. They give you the tools to work through the hardest times that will enable you to carry on. It’s cliché but life does go on, the events that push you in the direction of Petals will almost certainly change you forever, but you will get through it, not forget but learn to live with the pain, the emptiness, but learn to accept those feelings and know it’s ok to feel happy again, to smile and to laugh.

Please give what you can, miscarriage, still birth, neonatal death, they happen everyday to people like you and me. And without services like Petals a tragedy can easily become a disaster.  

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