#stillBORN Campaign - Scarlett's Story Or Reduced Movement

When we first found out Becky was pregnant we were both terrified but over the moon. We had no idea how to tell anyone. I was nearly 22 and Becky had just turned 20. We hadn’t been together long but we felt really happy! Becky had a pretty straight forward pregnancy, nothing to worry about. She was meant to be consultant led for a few various reasons but she saw her consultant maybe once.
Becky reached 36 weeks and felt reduced movements. Me being me thought everything was fine but to be on the safe side we went to triage to be monitored. Our little girl was perfect, nothing wrong at all.
Then we got to 40 weeks and again Becky felt reduced movements so we did as they would tell you to do on the phone – she had a hot and cold drink, laid down and counted the kicks, everything still seemed fine.
But the next day Becky wasn’t happy so we went down to the hospital and again were monitored, everything seemed okay but the midwife wanted just a few more minutes. Just then our little girl did a huge movement and it was then that the machine could no longer detect a heartbeat so the midwife rushed us up to be put on an ultrasound machine and there it was very clear our little girls heartbeat was getting slower. We then got rushed over to the delivery room, where I believe they were going to do an emergency c section but when they double checked the heart beat our little girl had sadly already gone. This was September the 29th. I have no idea what time, all the days kind of blurred together. My partner and her mother were as you would expect anyone to be. We then had to talk to a room full of people about how my partner would have to deliver our little girl which broke our hearts, all that pain and knowing the outcome was just horrific but it had to be done. Skip all the details – our daughter was born weighing exactly 8lbs on the 1st of October 2016 at 7.32pm. We spent that night and all of the next day with her. We were then allowed home on the 3rd of October. Once my partner was back to herself or as much as she could be, our little girls funeral was then on the 26th of October.

We had a cremation, me and my partner being the way we are, we didn’t have a very religious ceremony. We had a song from Star on the way in then half way through we had Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life then the final song was from frozen “let it go” because well anyone who’s been in this position will know the cold never bothers them. Any way we then got the post mortem results on the 19th of January and well after all that waiting and wondering we were told that our perfect little girl was perfect. They found nothing at all wrong with her, there is no explanation to why she’s not with us today and now we have to live with the fact she should be here with us driving us crazy for many many different reasons. That’s our story for our Scarlett Rey.

Richard Snelgrove