Fiona Anderson

October is Pregnancy & Infant loss awareness month.  

When I announced my pregnancy in June, I never imagined for one second that I wouldn't get to bring my baby home with me. My heart was broken into a million pieces when I developed severe early onset preeclampsia & HELLP syndrome, causing my angel Jesse Darren Anderson to be born sleeping at 24 weeks on 11th August 2020.

Losing my son has been the most incredibly heartbreaking and traumatic time that I've ever experienced. It is something that sadly, too many parents have experienced. One of the hardest parts of losing Jesse was knowing that I would never get the opportunity to create beautiful memories of our life together.

I will be forever grateful that the hospital had a cuddle cot available to me. A cuddle cot is a cooling system that lays beneath your baby within a bassinet, to help reduce the distress of being separated from your baby by having to keep handing your angel back to hospital staff to be returned to the morgue.

One of my biggest fears was that I would forget the details of Jesse's face. The cuddle cot allowed me to spend three much needed days with Jesse, to create a lifetime of memories in a short time & to stare at him for hours to ensure his beautiful features are etched into my memory forever.

There are many hospitals around the country that do not have a cuddle cot, meaning that every day, there are families who do not have the opportunity to spend precious time with their angel babies. A cuddle cot would enable families to keep their baby close and create beautiful memories, spending as much time as they wish with their baby, before saying goodbye.

I am fundraising for a cuddle cot to be donated to an Australian hospital in need, to support bereaved families in those crucial days after the loss of their baby. The cuddle cot would be donated in loving memory of Jesse, with his name beautifully displayed across the hood of the bassinet, and will hopefully help another family in some small way, to get through the most tragic moment of their lives.

Each cuddle cot costs $6500.  I would be forever grateful if you are able to help me reach my goal of providing an Australian hospital with a cuddle cot.  I would truly appreciate your donation of any amount, big or small.