ashleigh hopkins
I'm running 50 Miles in March for Sands
Fundraising for Sands, the stillbirth and neonatal death charity
Story
I am RUNNING 50 miles between March 1st and March 31st to show my support for families who've lost a baby and raise funds to make sure they don't face this tragedy alone. The memory of our first born will be with me along the way.
Sands want to ensure that everyone affected by the loss of a baby gets the support they need and deserve when facing the toughest of times. They want to help campaign for change and support research so that fewer babies die and so that fewer families experience the pain of losing a baby.
Our baby girl was stillborn on the 17th May 2019. I was 41 weeks pregnant, had a perfect pregnancy and went to hospital to get induced as hundreds of women do every day.
A midwife checked me at 11pm and by 8am the next day sadly our baby had died.
We don’t know why and we’ve never needed to know why, it just tragically happened, having a reason didn’t make it any easier.
During that night there were 3 opportunities for the staff to check on me and our baby and they didn’t. It wasn’t busy.
The government have appointed an impartial agency called HSIB to investigate unexplained child deaths. Their report highlighted potential failings in my care and told the trust they needed to consider making changes to their procedures. To this day I have had no response from the NHS since the HSIB released their report in December 2019.
It took the community midwife 5 days to “call to see me”.
I was not offered any support, I was discharged from hospital with a leaflet and a memory box (funded by an amazing local charity called 4Louis) there was very poor (almost no) aftercare.
I am not a vulnerable person, I have an amazingly strong family who supported us through the trauma but what saddens me is that there are people in this country that have no one and the ‘system’ is failing these people! They are alone at the most traumatic time of their life.
Its so important that we continue to talk about this subject and raise awareness to support those suffering.
Every donation means so much. Thank you!
Ashleigh x
