Millie Smith and Lewis Cann were very happy when they found out they were going to be parents. Millie had a feeling that she might be carrying two babies because there were twins in their family. Her feeling turned out to be right when the doctors confirmed that she was indeed expecting twins. However, they also told her that one of the babies was not going to live because she had a condition called anencephaly, which means the baby’s brain and spine didn’t develop properly. They said she would only live for a very short time.
Millie and Lewis decided to give her a name before she passed away, so they chose the name Skye. They picked this name because it symbolized a place they could always remember her, like looking up at the sky.
When Skye was born at 30 weeks, she only lived for three hours. Her parents held her, admired her, and cherished the short time they had with her.
After Skye passed away, they were given a special nurse to help them cope with their loss, and they had a room called the “Daisy Room” where they could be with Skye before and after she passed away.
But after Skye was gone, people stopped talking about her, and Millie felt like nobody remembered her baby. This made her very upset. Even though the nurses knew what happened, they stopped mentioning Skye, and after about four weeks, it was like she never existed. This made Millie feel very lonely.
One day, another mother who had just given birth to twins made a comment about how lucky Millie was not to have twins, not knowing about Skye. This comment hurt Millie deeply, and she ran away in tears because she didn’t want to explain what happened.
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That’s when Millie came up with an idea. She thought of putting a sticker on the incubator to show that one or more babies in a set of twins had passed away. She chose a purple butterfly because it was a symbol for babies who had flown away. This sticker would let people know about the loss without Millie having to explain it every time.
Millie’s idea turned into a foundation called The Skye High Foundation, which supports the purple butterfly initiative. They have spread this idea to hospitals in many different countries.
They also sell purple butterfly merchandise like gifts and accessories to raise awareness. Millie knows that she can’t stop this from happening, but she wants to help other families who go through the same sadness.
Today, Millie’s other daughter, Callie, is seven years old.
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