A 27-year-old mother has shared her heartbreak after her second daughter was stillborn in the hopes of empowering other grieving parents.
Abbie Southern, who lives with partner Dan and their two-year-old daughter Esmae in Cheshire, penned an emotional post to second daughter Ivy-Rae on Facebook.
She detailed the raw pain of Ivy-Rae being stillborn on June 8 last year, writing: 'I watched a team of eight people work on you.
'I remember being so calm, because it's 2018 we save lives and babies don't just die that's not how it works.
Abbie Southern (pictured, left, with Ivy-Rae, right) has pledged to raise awareness in order to help others who have had to deal with stillbirths
Dan, pictured with his stillborn daughter Ivy-Rae, wanted to break the taboo over still birth
'But the reality is it did happen, it happened to our baby, it happened to our Ivy-Rae and it happens more than you think only we as a society don't talk about it.
'Our baby did exist. We will break the taboo of being silent. We want the world to know about Ivy-Rae and the love she has!'
Ms Southern wants to raise awareness of stillbirth as she says she had no idea in the run-up to giving birth that she could leave the hospital with an empty car seat.
After what she describes as a 'very easy, straight forward' pregnancy, she had planned to deliver her second daughter at home, but that plan quickly changed when Ivy-Rae's heart rate dropped.
Her placenta had begun to detach itself placing her unborn baby in danger. After initially being induced at home, she was then rushed to hospital where Ivy-Rae was delivered at 10.22am at Leighton Hospital in Crewe.
Pictured: The urn that carries Ivy-Rae's ashes after she was born still to Abbie Southern, whose post has moved
