Our beautiful baby girl, Matilda Joan Purcell, was born sleeping on 22nd June at 38 weeks, weighing a diddy little 5lb 7.

On 20th June I headed into Frimley day assessment following concerns over reduced movements. Tilly was always so active, nighttime’s and mornings especially. I really just thought I was overthinking and maybe I had just missed her movements because I’d had a busy morning. The midwife put me onto the monitor but was unable to locate Tilly’s heartbeat, she had been in very difficult positions from about 28 weeks and as we had only had our ECV (external cephalic version) a few days before, 17th June, the midwife decided to ask a doctor to scan.

We went up to the labour ward and I was straight away put into a side room and advised the consultant would be coming from theatre shortly. I was still very much naive that anything was wrong, she’s my daughter, she’s just being stubborn I kept saying. At 10:12am on 20th June, the doctor said the words no parent should ever have to hear ‘I’m sorry, we cannot locate a heartbeat’

In that split moment, our whole life had fallen apart. We were sent home, sent home knowing our baby girl had passed, knowing labour would begin but we’d be bringing our baby into the world, sleeping. Everything about this is cruel, but now we had to go through labour knowing Tilly hadn’t made it, cruel doesn’t even cut that.

My contractions began around 12 hours after being home. We then welcomed our beautiful baby into this world on 22nd June at 11:46pm.

We feel so blessed to have witnessed the most innocent and purest love from our little girl, a feeling that will never leave us. Tilly has already taught us so much, the true meaning of unconditional love, that nothing should be taken for granted (no mater how big or small) but mainly that not all parents are able to take their babies home from the hospital but that doesn’t make them any less of a parent than those who do.

We will never have the opportunity to parent Tilly the way others do their babies, but keeping her memory alive and raising awareness is how we will continue to be her Mummy and Daddy everyday.

In Matilda’s legacy we would love nothing more than to be able to prevent any other parents/families having to go through this complete and utter heartbreak, however we know that is not possible. Therefore we are determind to share Matilda’s story and raise money and awareness for the charities that help bereaved parents through this unimaginable time.

All our love,

Ellie and Tom

Matilda’s Mummy and Daddy x

Sands, the stillbirth and neonatal death charity, operates across the UK: supporting anyone affected by the death of a baby; working in partnership with health professionals to ensure that bereaved parents and families receive the best possible care; and promoting improvements in practice and funding research that could help to reduce the loss of babies’ lives.

We depend on the amazing energies of our supporters to raise the vital funds that we need to deliver the wide range of services that we offer. #TeamSands