AFTER the devastating loss of her stillborn son, a mother wants to give something back to the 'amazing' midwives who continue to offer invaluable kindness and support.

Little Freddie-Ray Snell was born sleeping on his due date, Friday, December 16 2016, in the Faye Turner suite at Worcestershire Royal Hospital.

Devastated mum Fran Snell vowed to help the midwives fundraise for a second £60,000 maternity bereavement suite at the hospital as a thank you for their support which helped comfort the grieving mother.

The 20-year-old, who lives at The Red Lion in Powick, said: "They only have one suite at the moment that is used by mothers who are 16 weeks to full term so as you can imagine it is used quite a lot.

"There is only one room, so someone else could need the room as well.

"When I had Freddie four weeks ago, they were so amazing to all of us.

"They put a bed in the room for my mum to stay with me.

"The whole support was amazing so I wanted to give something back which will also give me something to focus on and keep my mind busy."

It had been a normal first pregnancy up until two days before Freddie's due date when a midwife during a routine home visit had a problem with her fetal heart monitor.

As a precaution, she sent Miss Snell to Worcestershire Royal for a scan where it was tragically discovered that her baby had died.

It was a heartbreaking moment for Miss Snell and her mum Deborah who decided to go home and wait to go into labour naturally.

After a sleepless night, she went into labour on Thursday.

Born the following day at 3.55pm, "perfect" Freddie-Ray weighed 8lb six-and-a-half oz.

Miss Snell said: "Everything about the pregnancy was normal, I had a really good pregnancy so I never thought anything could have gone wrong.

Hereford Times:

"I thought they had it wrong, I thought there was no way when I was only two days away from my due date that this could happen - I was just in floods of tears.

"But the midwives helped through the birth and they didn't do anything differently when I had him.

"Afterwards, they did whatever they could to support us. Every day they were so great to us all.

"My midwife still comes out to see us and she suggested fundraising for the second suite when I mentioned I wanted to do something."

The hospital helped the new mum take Freddie-Ray's hand and footprints, were constantly on call and helped the family create special memories during the short time they had with Freddie-Ray.

Fran's mum Deborah said: "They made an awful situation the best it could be.

"They allowed us a closeness with Freddie and invited my other two granddaughters aged eight and ten to spend time with us.

"For the young children, it made Freddie part of their lives without being too sad or too emotional for them.

"He was a perfect little baby."

Fundraising will take place throughout the year with donation buckets placed around the pub and a charity quiz organised for Tuesday, January 31 at 8.30pm.

A JustGiving page has been set up which can be found here. People can keep up-to-date with fundraising on the site or via The Red Lion, Powick, Facebook page.

A spokesperson for Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said: "We are extremely grateful to those who are using their time to help us improve our bereavement services.

"The funds raised are for an additional bereavement suite, we realise how important it is to have a more relaxed, comfortable, quiet and safe environment for families to stay and spend time with their babies that have died either during pregnancy or shortly after birth.

"We need to raise £60,000 and are looking into some fundraising ideas, to date there has been around £10,000 raised."

  •  Anyone wishing to donate raffle prizes to the quiz should email cp@worcesternews.co.uk.