Welcome to Maddison’s Movement. Some of you may have stumbled across this section and others will purposefully be looking out for it, however if you’re new around here then I’ll start with a brief introduction:
Maddison Grace Hunt is our first born, little world that we never got to bring home. She survived just 24 weeks and 5 days on the inside before we got the devastating news that her time on earth wasn’t to be. She was delivered naturally on Monday 15th April 2019 at 3.55am after an intense but relatively short 9 hour labour, before spending a total of 19 hours in our arms. Later that day we said our final goodbyes to our beautiful baby girl. I’ve written a heartfelt and detailed account of the full story which you can find here.
The idea of Maddison’s Movement derived from the automatic parental instinct to keep her memory and name heard in order to achieve two main goals. The first, to help stun the taboo of baby loss and contribute to breaking the sense of shame that so many mums and dads carry so heavy following the loss of a baby and the second was to raise funds towards the construction and function of a specific bereavement room located on the delivery suite of the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital where our little Maddison was born.
Since the release of our story, we have successfully raised £11,000, all of which went towards the completion of the bereavement delivery room which I am over the moon to announce is now fully functioning at the N&N and available for use, should this sad occasion occur for future couples experiencing loss. I am beyond proud that collectively, we all pulled together to achieve something so amazing, and didn’t fear opening up the conversation on such a sensitive topic. I thank Maddison for giving Jason and I the strength.
Perhaps we are biased in the way we view Maddison, she is our daughter after all but we know just how many lives she’s already touched just through her short existence and to honour her and the person she would have been, we are determined to commit to improving the small community that surrounds us by allowing the conversation to remain open. There are many lessons that this little girl has taught us already and will only continue to teach us through her presence of many forms. Our hearts can never fully recover from her loss, nor would we ever want them too, but the strength she has given to us as individuals and as a team will ensure that we continue to navigate this world without her physical presence but learn to appreciate the new eyes we have been given and we promise to her not to take them for granted. I would do anything to bring her back, but no amount of wishes could ever do that so I have to move forward and I’d love it if you all came along this journey with me.
Together we can make a difference and I plead with anyone that has the ability, determination or care to help us to continue making Maddison’s Movement a thing of the future, to fundraise and understand the need for ongoing research, but most importantly to speak out. Please click here to visit JustGiving and help us reach our target of £15,000 to donate towards the appeal at the NNUH.
Our 2020 aim is taking a slight diversion from the bereavement aspect of baby loss, which I hope you will all support as the services and resources are now successfully in place. Therefore, the next goal we are willing you all to help us fight for, is supporting acts and research that aid in the prevention of stillbirth. Any donations raised from February 2020 will be directed straight to the Obstetrician Consultant Beth Gibson, who I am under the care of and who has in recent years been the first consultant in Norfolk to set up a ‘rainbow clinic’ for women and partners who are expecting again after having previously lost a child. We have spent some time together going through a few statistics and future prospects with regards to recent and the most valid medical research that promises to dedicate funds and resources towards saving babies lives. Beth has reassured me that she will be using the money raised through Maddison’s Movement to help fund small acts that collectively have a huge impact on the way the hospital cares for women at higher risk of loss, ultimately putting plans in place that support closer monitoring/extra scans/training and creating opportunities for midwives to use their skills more efficiently in helping these women. Working in a hospital myself means that I know how important the smaller tasks are to achieving something bigger. As much as I would love to say I want to use Maddison’s name to raise thousands of pounds to fund research that is proven to prevent these cases, I know how unrealistic that is. There are of course, teams and individuals doing such a fantastic job of that such as The baby charity ‘Tommy’s’, however their research is of no good if we cannot fund and support the outcomes within our own local hospitals. This care NEEDS to be accessible to families everywhere and whilst our N&N is suffering under the weight of a lack of clinics that can perform extra tests, or unskilled staff that haven’t had the training resources to perform such detailed and difficult scans, we are moving no closer to prevention. So I thank you in advance for your time and involvement in helping us to act small to achieve big.
Over on Instagram I ask you to share your efforts with the hashtag #maddisonsmovement and if you know someone who may have been in this similar situation, reach out and ask them how they are, no matter how much time has passed. We can all try to move forward, but we will never move on and a little word here or there to know we are in your thoughts is appreciated more than you’ll ever know.
Thank You,
Ashleigh, Jason + Maddison. xo
