Myself (Adam) and my partner (Tash) were recently celebrating our second pregnancy.... absolutely thrilled that we were going to have a little boy, our first son, and our 3 year old daughter's little brother. We were so excited!

When we hit the 12 week mark, we started to relax.... 

Unfortunately though, it soon became a stressful and difficult experience; quite a rollercoaster of emotions over the rest of the pregnancy. 

After some appointments we were filled with nothing but worry, and after some we experienced huge relief. 

Then, on the 29th June 2020 - our baby's growth had dropped and was now a real concern (below the first centile for his abdomen), and there were other signs of development issues. 

The second set results from an amniocentesis test then confirmed Leo had a chromosome abnormality - an unbalanced translocation. 

Fast forward just 6 days, on 5th July 2020, we were in labour - at 29 weeks pregnant, our baby boy, Leo Michael Warder was stillborn. Peacefully sleeping. 

We were on a special delivery suite (Abbey Suite) at the Women's Hospital in Birmingham... although this is a suite dedicated to these heartbreaking scenarios, and the staff were truly amazing, it is still within the main delivery suite building.... We had to walk through the main reception, full of happily pregnant women and excited partners... looking forward to meeting their little one's. 

We had just lost ours. 

The smiles of others, the random conversations around the place and the overall delivery suite environment is not what we needed at that time. 

The Birmingham Women's Hospital are trying to raise £3.5m to build a separate, more sympathetic centre (Woodland House) for bereaved parents to deliver their little ones and have the difficult, sensitive conversations with the doctors and midwives. Somewhere they can stay for as long as they need to, without having to endure the sound of crying babies, newly born on the delivery suite. 

For more information see:

https://www.bwh.org.uk/pages/category/woodland-house

Video of other parent's similar experience:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0ILefewufw&feature=youtu.be


Myself and Tash, especially over this stressful period during what has also been the Covid-19 lockdown, are in no real physically fit state - so although climbing Snowdon may not sound like much to all you athletes out there - it certainly will be a challenge for us!! 

We plan to climb on our son Leo's original due date, Sat 19th September. 

Please help us support the build of Woodland House and help future bereaved parents grieve in a more tranquil environment. Thank you!!!