My Daughter

I have 2 daughters and I would like to talk about my eldest daughter. I couldn’t be more proud of her and am extremely protective. She was born on the 8th March 2006 and weighed 1lb 12 oz. She was a premature baby and fought for around 90 minutes and in that time I changed her nappy, fed her, she held onto my little finger and opened her eyes. I can even tell you the exact moment we bonded, which is also is the most heart breaking moment for me. It was when she tried to cry. At that moment I would have fought the world and quite happy crawled over hot coals if it would have helped her. She died in peacefully in my arms.

I can’t remember who said “no parent should endure the pain of burying their children” I have done it twice. I have met numerous people now with equally heart breaking stories and the way I dealt with it was to tear myself apart both mentally and physically. The therapy bills and scars back this up.

The above is the short version of an extremely painful day in my life. My eldest daughter had a very serious heart condition and my youngest daughter was too premature. I have now accepted that there wasn’t anything the doctors could do for them.

I have recently been trying to lobby MPs to increase funding for neonatal units, the support of parents and research into the prevention of neonatal deaths. To date I have had one response and I am holding that letter in my hand.