Every day in the UK around 15 babies die before, during or shortly after birth. This means that every 90 minutes a family is faced with the devastation of the death of their baby.
The charities main aims are to reduce these deaths and offer free support to parents who have been affected by such cases. For further information: https://www.sands.org.uk/
As with many charities I did not become aware of its existence until my wife and I were affected by the areas that it operates.
On 23rd June 2017 my wife and I attended Hull Royal Infirmary for a dating scan of our first child. It was one of the most exciting times of our lives. We had planned a camping trip on the evening with all of our friends so we could announce the news. Unfortunately during the scan we were made aware of a multitude of problems. The baby had developed its organs on the outside of its body and had a 1 in 45 chance of a chromosomal abnormality. We were taken away and put in a bereavement room to gather our thoughts and wait for a consultant to arrive from Leeds Children’s Hospital. The consultant arrived, confirmed the issues and sent us home with a 1 in a 1000 chance of a successful birth. For the following week SANDS helped my wife with advice and support while I had no idea what to say to her.
On 30th June we were invited back to hospital to be scanned and to have a procedure called an amniocentesis. To both ours and the consultant’s amazement, the organs had repaired into our baby’s body and the blood results that indicated a chromosomal abnormality had changed. We cancelled the amniocentesis and sought advice again. We were informed of a non invasive test that we could have done at a private clinic. All the tests came back with perfect results. Our first child was born on 18th December 2017, 5 weeks premature and weighing 6lb. He is now approaching one year old and has to date visited 11 countries in our camper van.
After an amazing year things got even better. I returned home from work on 16th September and my wife told me that we were expecting our second child ; due May 2019. It was music to my ears. Our midwife told us that we would be consultant led again due to our past complications. On 15th November 2018 we went for our dating scan. We were full of fear as the room in the hospital did not hold fond memories. We crossed our fingers that everything would be OK. Sadly, we were informed that our baby had died.
My wife has continued to have complications since and the support from SANDS has been invaluable.
To thank SANDS for the support they offer to us and others we know that have had similar occurrences, I will be running in the Peak District Ultra Trail race on 13th July. The run is 100km long with 2450m of climb and descent. I have to complete the run in 16 hours.
If anyone would like to sponsor me it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, Josh