Annabel was a healthy active baby throughout the pregnancy. We really started to notice her becoming active during our holiday in France. We decorated the nursery early on, set it up and bought all the equipment that you think you might need. Everything was going so well and to plan. Catherine is an insulin dependent diabetic and because of the problems with Sam’s pregnancy, Annabel was scheduled to be born by Caesarean section at 38 weeks on the 8th of November.

On the 6th of November, we went in for the usual pre checks, ready for hospital admittance the following day. Everything was fine and Annabel was kicking madly as usual. That night Catherine felt some pains in her stomach, we assumed that they were the Braxton hicks contractions and didn’t think any more of it. We now think this is when Annabel actually died.

The following day Catherine commented that she hadn’t felt the baby moving, but again didn’t think much of it.

We arrived at the Hospital that evening, excited at the prospect of our second child which we already knew was going to be a girl. The standard checks were done starting with the foetal heart monitor. No heart beat could be found at the first attempt. Another machine was tried and another. A Scan was then done which confirmed the baby had died.

She was born the following day by Caesarean section, and we got to hold her - thank goodness we did. She was a beautiful girl with long dark hair and looked perfect. We never had a reason for her death, the post mortem showed everything as being normal. In such a tragic situation, we will always be left with the question - Why?