Losing a loved one is never easy, but it is especially difficult for parents to lose their baby.
So, when India Gibson and her partner Jamie Hayes lost their 6-month-old baby, they couldn’t stop themselves from holding him for ten more precious days after his death.
Little Toby died suddenly in the middle of the night while the family was on a holiday. This sudden departure of Toby left his parents in ‘torn into pieces’.
As per The Sun, the family was 300 miles from home when the mother found her 6-month-old son unresponsive in his cot.
While sharing her grief, the 25-year-old mother shared:
“We were just in pieces. Toby was our life.“
“He was six months old and the cheekiest little boy ever. He just had to pull his cheeky grin and he would have everyone smiling around him.”
Like any new parents, the couple stayed up to check on Toby. But when the mother went to bed around midnight, she immediately realized something was wrong.
Though the first-time mom immediately called an ambulance and Toby was rushed to the hospital, the doctors couldn’t save him.
A post mortem revealed Toby died of sudden infant death syndrome, also known as cot death.
While mourning the death of her baby, the mother said:
“He was completely healthy before we lost him. The only issue we had was teething.”
“The last thing we ever thought we would be doing is planning our six-month-old baby’s funeral.”
Bidding goodbye to your baby is the toughest thing for any parent. In this tough time, a charity Cariad Angel Gowns came to support the couple.
The charity gifted them a cold cot, which gave the parents ten precious days with Toby after the death.
Thanks to this special cot, these parents were able to bring Toby home and also gave their family some precious additional time to say goodbye and cuddle him before his funeral.
The special cot uses a cooling system to help preserve a baby’s body after they die for days and it can be taken away to use at home.
The mourning mother further shared,
“Having Toby at home with the cuddle cot meant we could have him with us 24 hours of the day so it just meant that he was not immediately taken from us.”
“In that time, we would kiss him good morning, kiss him goodnight and give him the love we always gave him.”
“We gave him lots of cuddles and were able to keep to some routine – I’ve heard other couples have also even bathed their babies.”
“It meant that the whole family could come and say their goodbyes, including Jamie’s brother who hadn’t been able to meet him before and got to hold him for the first time.”
These parents feel that they were very fortunate to spend those additional 10 days with Toby. And, to help other parents going through a similar tough phase, these parents have already started donating these cots to mark Toby’s first birthday.
Sharing their vision to raise awareness about these cots among parents to face the same painful heartbreak, the parents shared:
“Loosing a child is such a taboo subject, it is so devastating. But all we want is to talk about Toby and make our boy proud because he was our life.”
“Our wish is for other parents experiencing loss to have a chance to spend more time with their baby, give them love and make memories before saying goodbye.”
“It really helped with our grieving process.”
“Not many people who know about cuddle cots, even people who have lost babies and have asked me what they are. If we are able to talk about it, we can raise more awareness about these cots and we want to help other people in our situation.”