Giving birth to a child is, for many, the happiest and most exciting moment of their lives. For Brooke, however, this unique experience became the very worst of nightmares.
Now, with her heart lost to eternal ache, she wants to tell her story in the hope that she can prevent it ever happening again. No family should have to suffer something like this if it can be avoided.
*This article may contain images some readers find distressing.
Brooke is a 27-year-old mother from Brisbane, California. Just last year, she was happily awaiting the arrival of her second child.
But at the end of August, 2017, everything went wrong.
Brooke suddenly suffered a heavy haemorrhage which left her in a critical condition. All told, she lost 1.7 litres of blood. At the time, she was in the 36th week of her pregnancy.
Ultrasounds showed then that the baby she had in her belly wasn’t displaying any vital signs. Brooke’s world collapsed around her.
She herself delivered the devastating news to her husband, Elliot. He collapsed and fell to the ground – his only words were that it could not be possible; that this could not be happening. Several nurses had to steady him after he’d risen to his feet.
What should have been one of the happiest days of their lives, became the worst of nightmares. Brooke had to go through the horror of delivering an already dead baby.
“My heart was broken. I looked at the ultrasound screen and could see the lifeless body of the baby inside me. It’s an image I can never erase from my mind,” Brooke said, according to Spanish site Viralista.
Now Brooke, in the midst of her grief, wants to share the photos of her deceased newborn in the hope that nobody else will have to go through it. Because – and this is the heartbreaker – it could have been avoided.
Brooke had suffered a placental abruption, meaning the wall of her uterus had come off either completely or partially. The detachment causes bleeding in the mother that prevents the supply of oxygen and nutrients to the baby.
Subsequent medical tests have revealed that Brooke suffers from an uncommon genetic coagulation disorder, one called Factor V Leiden.
A blood test could have detected this problem without too much difficulty, so Brooke wants to warn all mothers to ask for such a test during their pregnancies.
Despite her grief, Brooke is aiming to save the lives of other babies so that the death of her child will not be in vain.
Help us to share her message. SHARE this post and save a life!
