Baby Loss Awareness week to honour angel babies

FAMILY: Amie Whenuaroa with her children Addison and Lincoln, holding a photograph of her firstborn daughter Noelle. Photo: Shontelle Cargill

Five years since Waikato mother Amie Whenuaroa delivered her daughter stillborn, she thinks of her every day.

Her daughter Noelle died at 29 weeks’ gestation. Whenuaroa felt sick and hadn’t felt the baby move so her midwife told her to go directly to hospital.

After an emergency scan it was discovered that Noelle had developed foetal hydrops which is a condition where there is fluid around the baby’s organs.

Specialists advised Whenuaroa that Noelle had a ten percent chance of survival. “I think deep down we were hoping she would pull through during the night but in the early hours of the morning she passed away,” Whenuaroa said.

Three days later on April 11, 2010, she was induced to deliver Noelle stillborn.

Baby Loss Awareness Week is held this week and Whenuaroa will be honouring her daughter’s memory. She wants to help other families do so as well.

Whenuaroa is the co-ordinator for the Waikato region of Sands NZ which is an organisation that supports bereaved parents and families who have experienced the death of a baby.

“If Noelle was here today I would be mother help at school or kindy or whatever activity she would be doing. But I can’t parent her like I do my living children so for me being a part of Sands Waikato and Baby Loss Awareness Week is me parenting Noelle,” Whenuaroa said.

Sands Waikato will be participating in the global wave of light at 6.30pm on Thursday, October 15 at Kakariki House, Grey Street. All are welcome to join.

New Zealand is the first country to kick off the global wave of light with every country lighting candles at 7pm their local time to ensure the light continues for 24 hours around the globe in honour of angel babies.

There will be an additional memorial service on Sunday, October 18 at the Hamilton Gardens rose garden at 2pm.

“It’s not only the baby we are missing but it’s the also the first birthday, the tenth birthday, the sixteenth birthday, the first tooth – there’s a whole lifetime we miss with them,” Whenuaroa said.