Lily’s Noor - Provide parents who have lost their babies with post-mortem MRI scans
Lily’s Noor - Provide parents who have lost their babies with post-mortem MRI scans
Why this petition matters
*Trigger Warning*
It’s coming up to baby loss awareness week. 1 in 4 people in the UK experience pregnancy or baby loss. Each one is one too many.
Please sign and share the petition to enable other parents in all parts of the country to have access to post-mortem MRIs as standard practice and it not be left up to a postcode lottery.
Lily’s Noor.
Our baby was born sleeping at 37 weeks. We wanted desperately to find out what could have caused such an incomprehensible thing to happen but like around 60% of parents, we felt that an internal post-mortem was out of the question. Whilst it may bring answers, we didn’t want to subject our darling little girl to such an invasive process. Instead, we asked for a post-mortem MRI. This was refused. Knowing that we had just days to put her to rest, we frantically rang around everywhere, pleading with hospitals, both public and private, to conduct the scan and even contacting MPs and CEOs of hospital trusts. Every step we were met with blockades. We want to change that.
The mortality rate for infants is already too high and if the majority of parents don’t authorise a post-mortem, how can we possibly find more answers to potentially save lives in the future and improve research?
When it happened, we were met with so many messages of ‘it happened to me, my sister, my aunt, my friend.' Yet we still don’t speak of it. We believe that it’s crucial to talk about it. We need to raise awareness and just like any parents of a newborn, we want to talk about her. We want to say and hear her name. We want people to know that (in our experience) feeling your baby move truly consists of feeling them kick. I thought that feeling her shift around was enough but it turns out that unfortunately, she was already gone and this movement was not her moving herself. As horrible as that is to share, we want people to have the knowledge to hopefully avoid a similar situation.
We’re so lucky of the community we have surrounding us. Lily Noor has had hundreds of pounds donated to Sands in her name. She has a well in a village in Bangladesh and an olive tree to help farmers in the Middle East.
Now we want to further promote the cause that maybe her noor can shine a light on.
This week, think of all the beautiful souls gone and waiting to be reunited once again. As ultimately, whilst the leaves fall gently from the deciduous tree, each year they return and bring with them new life.
https://www.gosh.nhs.uk/press-releases/post-mortem-mri-viable-alternative-conventional-autopsy/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4067011/
If we continue to deny parents access to post-mortem MRIs, we won't be able to potentially find out reasons for stillbirth in the UK as the majority of parents feel unable to have their child undergo an internal post-mortem examination.
By acting now, we can bring awareness to a cause that is still seen as taboo and pushed under the rug. We can help parents and hopefully save lives in the future.