My letter to a stranger .
Dear friend of CMRI ,
This is our baby girl , Ava . I only got to hold her a few times - and I would give anything for one more cuddle . She died when she was just 12 days old .
This letter is very hard for me to write . But when the people at CMRI asked if I really wanted them to share my story with you , I said yes . I believe that if enough generous people like you support CMRI , no baby will suffer as our daughter suffered – and no parent will have to sit in a funeral parlour like I did , making decisions about how to bury their baby .
My partner Dale and I were so pleased when we found out I was pregnant . We had the usual scans and tests , and everything seemed normal . But then , about 13 weeks before the due date Ava arrived .
Although she was put on life support soon after she was born , Ava seemed to be doing really well , for a while . But it soon became clear that something was seriously wrong . They found something odd during an ultrasound of her brain , so they gave her an MRI scan on her 8th day .