Mother of Stillborn Baby Makes Donation to Memorial Hospital

Thousands of parents of stillborn infants suffer through the heartache of losing their baby every year. Memorial Hospital in Gulfport is the very first hospital in Mississippi to receive a special piece of medical equipment to help these parents with the process.
Biloxi mother Allison Watts said, “It’s very surreal. It’s sort of like you hop on a train and you can’t get off once you’re told.”
Hearing the words ‘your baby has passed away’ is something Biloxi mother Allison Watts says is more than enough to split your world in two. After her mother Allison carried her for months, Rosie Margaret Watts never had the chance to take her very first breath. Baby Rosie was stillborn at Gulfport Memorial Hospital on November 12th, 2014. “You don’t know what to think or what to do and you sort of just go through the motions,” said Watts.
As heartbroken parents, Allison and Mark Watts said goodbye to their baby. Time became precious and there was not enough of it to soothe the grief from losing Rosie before even knowing her. With three other children, Allison found the strength to keep going, but she’ll never forget the overwhelming feeling she had after the delivery, a shock other mothers of a stillborn baby may be suffering through. “There’s so much going on and a lot of times the mom needs attention and you can’t really focus all your energy on saying goodbye to your baby,” said Watts.
The Watts donated a special piece of medical equipment to Memorial Hospital. The Cuddle Cot is a cooling system prolonging the time before a stillborn baby is taken away.
According to national statistics about 24,000 babies are born stillborn every year. Memorial Hospital says they see about two each month. “This is they’re only time they’re going to have so they need to have as much time with their baby as possible,” said Manager of Labor Delivery Bridget Miller.
And now that precious time after a stillbirth has been expanded for parents at Memorial Hospital.