Giving birth can be an emotional roller coaster, even when everything goes well. Seeing your very own child for the first time is enough to bring anyone to tears, and if something goes wrong it can feel like the world is ending.
At moments like those, compassion and sensitivity is of the utmost importance, something Millie Smith learned after giving birth to her first child.
Millie was watching newborn daughter Callie sleep, when another woman came up to her and made what she thought would be a harmless comment. “You’re so lucky you don’t have twins,” she said.
Millie Smith
This woman couldn’t have meant to hurt Millie’s feelings, but the problem was that Milliedid have twins not too long ago. Unfortunately, Callie’s twin sister died just a few hours after birth because of an awful brain condition.
The pain of that comment left Millie speechless. “I ran out of the room in tears and they had no idea why,” she said in an interview. “I didn’t have the heart to tell them what had happened.”
Millie Smith
To prevent other grieving mothers from going through what she went through, Millie had a brilliant idea in the form of an unassuming purple butterfly sticker.
If you see a crib with one of these stickers, it means that the baby’s family has just suffered a tragedy. That way everyone is aware of the situation, strangers included.
This way, parents like Millie can avoid having to relive their trauma in conversation with medical staff and others. The stickers are already being used in the U.K’s Kingston Hospital, which is where Millie was staying.
Millie Smith
Millie knows that there is only so much that she can do to prevent others from suffering from similar incidents, but she’s trying her best to set up more support groups and bring the purple butterflies to more hospitals.
Millie Smith
It’s terrible that it took such a tragedy to get the purple butterfly idea going, but it’s great that Millie is redirecting her pain into something positive. Hopefully, soon every hospital will have these stickers!
Please share this important message with your friends below and support Millie’s crowdfunding efforts to put the purple butterflies in more hospitals.
