Catherine and Greg Hughes have recently shared a very distressing video -- showing their son's last few days of life. Both parents are now hoping that it will create awareness to all people, especially to pregnant women.
Catherine and Greg are both parents of one-month-old Riley, who died from whooping cough in March. Since the death of their son, both parents created Light for Riley campaign to raise awareness about the disease that took their son's life and to prevent further deaths from it.
"These are the final videos of our beautiful son Riley who passed away from whooping cough," the heartbroken mom wrote on Facebook. "I have always kept these videos to myself because it makes my blood run cold, listening to my beautiful boy cough like that."
Both parents are now hoping that the video, which have also been viewed nearly 300,000 times, will bring awareness to most people, especially to parents. This initiative is aimed towards highlighting the importance of vaccination to protect themselves and their children from the said fatal disease.
"But we are sharing this in the hopes that it will convince just one more pregnant mum to protect [her] baby from this disease," the message reads. "I wish I had known about pregnancy vaccination when I was pregnant with Riley," Mrs Hughes added.
According to The Guardian, babies are naturally born with no protection against the disease and the whooping cough vaccine will deliver its effect only if the baby reaches the age of six weeks. However, mothers can still protect their child by having the vaccine during pregnancy.
Mrs Hughes told ABC that they will continue their campaign to protect babies from the potentially fatal disease. They've also decided to strongly urge parents to see a doctor if they notice early signs of cough on their babies. The mother also encouraged all pregnant women to have "whooping cough vaccination" on their trimester to give their babies the best protection they need.
