Wave of Light to be held in Leeds tonight to remember babies who died too soon

A Wave of Light is being held in Leeds tonight to remember babies who died too soon.
The Wave of Light will be held tonightThe Wave of Light will be held tonight
The Wave of Light will be held tonight

The event will be held at Gledhow wing entrance of St James' Hospital from 7 to 8pm tonight (Monday, October 15).

A tree outside the hospital wing will be lit up in blue and pink, and families will have the opportunity to hang a personalised ribbon on it to mark International Pregnancy & Infant Loss Remembrance Day.

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A spokesman for Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust said: "To mark the end of Baby Loss Awareness Week, tonight the global ‘Wave of Light’ will take place.

"Everyone is welcome to come along to Gledhow wing entrance at St James's Hospital between 7pm-8pm tonight to remember all babies that have died too soon.

A tree outside will be lit up in blue and pink and families will have the opportunity to hang a personalised ribbon on it to mark International Pregnancy & Infant Loss Remembrance Day."

Last week, Claire, 36, shared her experience of baby loss ahead of the remembrance event.Every year thousands of people in the UK are affected by the death of a baby or experience pregnancy loss.

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Yet it is still often treated as a taboo subject. To highlight Baby Loss Awareness Week (October 9-15) Claire, 36, has shared her experience.

Her daughter lived for just 49 minutes.

She said: "It was the perfect pregnancy. No one tells you that you might not be coming home with a baby, why would they?

“I didn’t for one minute imagine that at around seven weeks before my due date things could go so terribly wrong.

“When our daughter was born there was a flurry of activity as she was handed to me, but she didn’t cry. There was just silence. They took her away from me and I could see lots of people around her.

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“After a while everyone stopped, there was quiet, and they wrapped her up in a blanket and handed her to me.

“She was gorgeous, just beautiful. She had dark hair, she just looked perfect, like she was asleep, wrapped in a blanket. She was small but not the tiniest baby that has ever been born and survived. The hurt never goes away. You never get over it. You do learn to live with it, though, I call it a ‘new normal Claire'.

“We left the hospital just 24 hours after we arrived. A five-minute journey home feels endless when you have left without your baby."