Hannah Potter
Hannah and Jagos page
Fundraising for Friends of the Baby Unit
Story
On the 27th December I was sent into hospital due to reduced movements in pregnancy, and was kept in overnight for further monitoring.
On the 29th, at 2am, my waters broke spontaneously at 32+2 weeks of my pregnancy, and we found that Henley had passed meconium whilst still inside me. My contractions started immediately and Henley’s heart rate was monitored constantly. At 12.30pm I gave birth to our beautiful Henley and was able to share a minute with him on my chest before he was taken to NICU to be checked over due to being premature.
We were allowed to go see Henley in the NICU once I was up and about, and we were told that his lungs were sticking together and not opening fully due to the meconium he had ingested in the womb.
As the night went on, Henley got progressively worse. We got told that Henley had pulmonary hypertension and sepsis. We got told to prepare for the worst but the staff are still going to keep working on him. We got offered a flat within NICU so that we could be close to Henley incase anything happens.
The staff in the NICU, and the neonatal transportation team spent many hours monitoring Henley, working their hardest to stabilise him so he could be transferred to coventry for further support and treatment. Unfortunately, despite all their efforts, Henley was not able to be stabilised.
We had to make a very difficult decision to allow Henley to be at peace. A decision we would never wish on any parent.
The aftercare given to Henley, ourselves, and our families was amazing. They went above and beyond providing baby clothes, keep-sakes and memories in order to support us through this difficult time.
In honour of our beautiful baby boy, Henley James, forever in all of our hearts 💙