A COUPLE from Brecon have raised money for a ‘cuddle cot’ for still born babies in a Radnorshire hospital in memory of their daughter Amelia.

Chantel MacGough and her husband donated the cuddle cot to Llandrindod Wells War Memorial Hospital in memory of Amelia Grace MacGough who was born sleeping at 36 weeks-old in Nevill Hall Hospital, Abergavenny, in 2019.

Chantel, who lives with her husband and two children, still remembers her beautiful daughter and is committed to keeping her memory alive.

She said: “Our daughter Amelia Grace MacGough was born sleeping at 36 weeks in Nevill Hall Hospital Abergavenny. She was our second daughter and so beautiful with dark black hair, rosy red cheeks and lips.

“She weighed seven pounds. I didn’t have any clue about the baby loss community and what surrounded it, but I promised myself I wanted her memory to stay alive forever. And I wanted her name to be known. In 2021 we started a fundraiser for a cuddle cot, for babies born sleeping.”

A cuddle cot is a cooling mattress which stops the baby’s body deteriorating allowing the parents to spend the precious last days with them before their funeral.

The special mattress can be placed in a baby’s cot or even in a pram.

The 24-year-old said: “It allows parents to stay with them for days or even weeks before their funeral, hugging them, dressing them and taking them out for walks. 

“We had help from the charity 4louis and also Claire’s hospice house which called around hospitals asking which were in need. We live in Brecon however they [the hosital] were not in need but Llandrindod hospital were. So our donation is going over to that hospital.

“We are still fundraising daily for her [Amelia’s] memory and hoping to get a second cuddle cot plus many more and memory boxes etc.

“I have also started a business in her memory making personalised wooden items for babies that have passed away and items for graves etc.”

The family has so far donated £60 to the stillbirth and neonatal death charity Sands, donated the one cuddle cot and are half way to having enough money for a second cuddle cot.

They’ve also purchased memory boxes from 4Louis - a charity which supports those impacted by stillbirth, miscarriage or the death of a child - and Sands.

The mother-of-three is also dedicated to giving ten per cent of each sale from her business towards baby loss charities.

Chantel is one of the people who was responsible for lighting up Brecon Cathedral in blue and pink for baby loss awareness last month.

A group of people gathered at the cathedral as well as at y Gaer which was also lit up in solidarity with grieving parents and in memory of their children.

Speaking about helping to support others who have experienced the loss of a child, Chantel said: “So far I have learned, there’s so many of us, and you don’t realise unless your in that community, most of us have similar stories, that many of us are afraid to tell, because it’s such a taboo subject and you get shut down if you tell your story by people that don’t understand. There’s so many of us in this community.”

“It [lighting up the cathedral] went really well. I think it’s extremely important [to talk about it]. You tell people about it and they’re like ‘oh I didn’t realise’ or people tell you after years it’s time to get over it or move on. People say hurtful words which they may not think are hurtful, but it is to us. The taboo needs to change, and people need not to be afraid to speak of there precious babies."