In Honor of Savannah Hope

We are coming up on a year already, I can’t begin to understand how the worst few days of my life are already so distant. If you don’t know me or our story, here’s a quick read.

On April 19th, 2024, my daughter Savannah’s movements went from great to gone within a very short few hours. We rushed into the hospital to just turn back around not even 60 minutes later with the worst news we could have gotten that night. At 38 weeks and 4 days we lost her before we even got to meet her. The next day we drove back over the bridge to Philadelphia and we started our journey of giving birth to our stillborn daughter.

As a previous NICU nurse I never expected to be the one in these shoes. Leaving your newborn in the hospital as you walk out to a car with a car seat installed and drive home with a nursery ready. You help people get through death but don’t expect to be on the other side of it.

We were lucky enough to get an answer as to why this happened to her. She had Amniotic Band Syndrome. This is when the “amnion” (inner layer of the amniotic sac) ruptures and the “amniotic bands” are left floating around in the amniotic fluid. In Savannah’s case the bands attached to her placenta and umbilical cord and her cord essentially lost blood flow from one of the bands being too tight. The chance of ABS affecting the umbilical cord is about 1/150,000 - extremely rare.

Having a reason doesn’t make it okay, but I can only hope and pray that she was comfortable and didn’t suffer - in the only place she knew, her mama.

To honor our sweet Savannah on her first "birth" day I've decided to raise money for other families in this situation. Some hospitals have a medical basinet referred to as a "cooling cot". A cooling cot simply gives grieving families time they will never have again with their baby.. When I was admitted to Pennsylvania Hospital the care that I received was beyond great from both my midwives & nurses. The only thing missing was this medical device that they did not have to offer. I'd like to change that and offer other families that are in similar situation this option.

With your help I plan to donate a full size & mini bassinet to the Pennsylvania Hospital's L&D floor.