After nine long months of waiting, planning and excitedly preparing for the arrival of our baby girl, nothing could have prepared us for that awful moment when they told us that we were not destined to bring her home. We arrived at the hospital shortly after my waters broke, at the end of what had been a healthy and uneventful 40 weeks of pregnancy, with no idea whatsoever that there was even a problem. We listened in shock and disbelief as the midwives and doctors told us they couldn’t find our baby girl’s heartbeat. Her little heart stopped beating, and with it our whole world came crashing down. 

No parent should ever have to face the pain and trauma of losing a child to stillbirth. And yet, there is still so much that is not known about why it happens and how to prevent it. For 40 weeks all I was told was that I had a low-risk, textbook pregnancy, and yet, here we are, living with the reality of a dead baby. Her death remains “unexplained” and we’ve learned that in up to 50% of cases of term stillbirth, a cause is never found. 

We know we are not alone in feeling that that’s not good enough. But without more research we will never know why so many babies continue to die inexplicably before birth. This is why we are raising money to help Tommy’s fund vital research that can prevent the heartache we are experiencing from affecting other parents and families. Sadly nothing will bring our beautiful Alya back, but we want the legacy of her short life to be one of light and scientific progress. So instead of sending us food or flowers, we are asking our wonderful family and friends who feel they would like to help in some way to consider donating to Tommy’s  - so that one day no parent will have to live with this heartbreak. 

All our love

Farah and Rory