Amanda tells of baby loss agony as she launches charity
ACTRESS Amanda Holden has opened up about the death of her stillborn son as she launches a fundraising appeal in his name.
The Britain’s Got Talent star was seven months pregnant with Theo in 2011 when a scan revealed his heart had stopped.
Amanda, 47, says at first she was terrified to hold him, but the support of a group of midwifery friends helped her and her family through their heartache and enabled them to come to terms with their loss.
This week is Baby Loss Awareness Week, and Amanda visited Tommy’s Stillbirth Research Centre and Rainbow Clinic at Saint Mary’s Hospital in Manchester , which works to find the causes of stillbirth as well as support pregnant women who have had a previous loss.
Through the charity, she has set up a fund to provide special bereavement counsellors at all UK maternity units, starting with Manchester. The campaign is called ‘Theo’s Hope.’ “In the UK one in every 225 pregnancies end in stillbirth – one of the highest rates in the developed world,” Amanda said.
“It means more than 3,430 babies die every year, with half of the tragedies totally unexplained, as in Theo’s case.
“But fewer than half of all UK maternity centres have specialist midwives trained to help bereaved parents. “We need to change that. “Initially we hope to fund one fulltime counsellor at Tommy’s Stillbirth Research Centre in Manchester. Then, hopefully, in the future it can be rolled out across the NHS.
“There is never a ‘cure’ for the pain of losing a baby but you can be healed in a way that lets you get on with your life.”
Amanda, who is also mum to Lexi, 12, and Hollie, six, recalled losing Theo.
“We kept him overnight with us,” she added. We took a footprint and cut a lock of Theo’s hair for a memory box.
“I think about him every day. And I look at Theo’s photograph. I keep it in another box with our marriage certificate and the children’s birth certificates as he’s still a part of our family.”
The star narrates a documentary about stillbirth called Child of Mine on Channel 4, on October 18, at 10pm.