Millie Smith and Lewis Cann were overjoyed when they found out they were going to be parents. Millie had a strong feeling she was having two babies because her family had a lot of twins, and her mother’s instinct didn’t disappoint her. The scan revealed that she was definitely expecting twins, but even at this early stage of the pregnancy, doctors could predict that one of the infants would not live.
When Millie gave birth at 30 weeks pregnant, they learned that one of their girls had anencephaly, a life-threatening illness in which the baby’s brain and spinal cord (the embryonic nervous system) do not develop normally. They were also advised that their bundle of joy would only live for a few minutes to a few hours. Her parents, knowing this, decided to name her before saying their final goodbyes.
Skye was the name they selected.”We knew that Skye needed to have a name before she was born,” Millie stated. “Knowing she would only survive for seconds or minutes, I wanted her to be named during that time.””Skye,” she continued, represented “somewhere we knew she would always be, that we could look up at the sky and remember our baby.” “We were cuddling Skye when she died. This was the most difficult time of our life. I’d never experienced such heartbreak before. But I am proud of her for fighting so hard to spend time with us.”
Skye only lived for three hours, during which her parents admired her beauty and enjoyed her presence in their life. Following her death, the pair was given a “bereavement midwife” and a “Daisy Room,” a room where parents can be with their infant before and after death, to help them deal. However, once the girl was gone, no one mentioned her again. Millie was enraged because she felt as if her kid had never existed.
“Most of the nurses were aware of what had occurred, but people stopped talking about Skye as time passed.” “After about four weeks, everyone acted as if nothing had happened, which meant that the families around me were unaware of our situation,” the bereaved mother remembered. While her other baby, Callie, was still in the NICU, another woman who had recently had twins on her own told Millie how fortunate she was not to have twins, oblivious to Millie’s grief.
“The other parents had no idea what had happened or anything about Skye.” The remark was absolutely harmless and intended to be humorous…They were not to know that I had two at one point.” “But the comment nearly broke me,” Millie added. They had no understanding why I was crying as I raced out of the room. I couldn’t bring myself to tell them what had happened. That entire issue could have been prevented with a simple sticker.”
Millie had the notion to put a sticker on the incubator noting the loss of one or more infants in a set of multiples at this point. “I chose butterflies, as I felt it was fitting to remember the babies that flew away, the color purple because it is suitable for both boys or girls,” she said. Her idea has evolved into The Skye High Foundation, which supports the Purple Butterfly idea. So far, it has aided in the expansion of the concept to hospitals in a variety of countries.
Purple butterfly stuff ranges from presents to accessories. “Ultimately, I will never be able to prevent this from happening, but the more support groups we can form and implement measures like the stickers, the better.” “It’s the most difficult thing anyone has to deal with,” Millie stated. Callie, her other daughter, is now seven years old.