A mom in the United Kingdom has launched a movement for parents and she is choosing to use a purple butterfly as its symbol. The image is becoming a familiar fixture at Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU), but what does this actually stand for?
It was a bittersweet moment when Milli Smith gave birth to her twin daughters, Callie and Skye, at the Kingston Hospital. Within three hours after they were born, Skye didn't make it due to a condition she developed while still in the womb, per Babble.
Doctors told Milli Smith on her twelfth week of pregnancy that one of the babies had anencephaly. According to the Genetic Home Reference, the condition means that the baby is missing her skull bones, cerebrum and cerebellum. These parts of the brain are crucial to coordination, thinking, emotion, hearing and vision.
Milli Smith was advised the baby will not survive a day outside of the womb. But because the other baby was still fighting to live, she and her partner, Lewis Cann, proceeded with the pregnancy. While it was tough knowing that she is carrying the babies to full term when one of them was dying, Milli Smith did her best to enjoy the unusual pregnancy.
She went into early labor at 30 weeks and relished her short moments with baby Skye before she died. But as the mom was watching over Callie at the NICU, someone made an innocent comment that she's lucky not to be having twins. Still grieving, Milli Smith didn't have the energy to correct the person. But that experience made her come up with the purple butterfly stickers.
At NICU hospitals, purple butterfly stickers are placed in baby carriages to indicate that the newborn was part of a set. It signifies the loss of an infant in a twin birth or multiple birth, per Scary Mommy.
Milli Smith has also opened a crowdfunding site, Skye's Wish, to support bereaved families who are coping with the loss of a child. Milli was placed in a special delivery room when she gave birth to her twins, as the death was already anticipated. She also had the care and guidance of a bereavement midwife at the hospital who helped her arrange Skye's funeral at such a difficult period.
The fund she hopes to raise is for the stickers, as well as to give back to families who may need the same services. Learn more about Skye's Wish here.
