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Mother says time spent with her deceased prematurely born daughter was a “gift”

A grieving mum has said that being able to take her stillborn daughter home in a ‘cuddle cot’ for a few days before her funeral was “immensely comforting”.

Amy Dutch, 25, gave birth to her stillborn daughter Alicia-Mae, on 18 April. Sadly her daughter had died in the womb shortly before she was born. After leaving the hospital she visited the funeral home every day to see her daughter. A bereavement midwife then arranged for a refrigerated ‘cuddle cot’ so that Amy could take her baby home for the final 12 days before the funeral.

Amy was able to sleep next to her daughter and spent hours reading Star Wars storybooks, and taking her on walks around the house as a way of grieving and bonding with her deceased daughter.

She said: “All pregnancy I’d been fixated on this image of falling asleep curled around a Moses basket on my bed and then waking up to my baby crying”.

“That image will never be complete but the fact I could still make half of it come true really warmed parts of my heart that I thought had died with Alicia-Mae”.

“I know the thought of someone staying in the house with a dead baby is maybe not everyone’s idea of comforting, but I think we all deal with grief differently”.

Amy works selling handmade items online and during her time at home with the baby she was able to sew a tiny nappy and dress which she put on her daughter.

“I now have photos of my baby girl in my bedroom and that just fills me with joy. There was something immensely comforting about seeing her at home amongst her things where she belonged. Her journey felt more complete”.

‘There’s no heartbeat’

Amy had a difficult pregnancy but it wasn’t until the 26th week that she realised something was wrong. She hadn’t felt her baby move for a few hours and as she had a midwife appointment the next day, she decided to wait until then. When the midwife was unable to find a heartbeat, Amy was rushed to hospital for an emergency scan, her mum by her side the whole time.

“Those words never leave you once you’ve been told them for real: ‘There’s no heartbeat’. Suddenly I was thrust into a world no one wants to know exists”.

Amy was incredibly grateful for the ‘cuddle cot’, which was set up at her bedside so she could sleep next to her daughter like she had done at the hospital.

Amy said: “There is nothing that eases the pain of losing a baby but the gift of time is something incredibly important”.

Amy is now in the midst of setting up a charity to make sure that a cuddle cot is an option for more women.

Right To Life UK spokesperson, Catherine Robinson, said: “Our hearts go out to Amy, her boyfriend Emced, and their daughter in this deeply sad case. Alicia-Mae’s death is a tragedy not made any easier by her very young age. This illustrates how precious life is even at its earliest stages, inside or outside the womb”.

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Help stop three major anti-life threats.

Dear reader,

Thanks to the hard work and dedication of people like you across the UK, the McArthur assisted suicide Bill in Scotland was defeated in March by 69 votes to 57.

Then, in April, the Leadbeater assisted suicide Bill fell in the House of Lords.

Many commentators thought both Bills would become law.

If that had happened, governments in England, Scotland and Wales would now be preparing to roll out assisted suicide services.

Over the coming decades, this would have led to the deaths of many thousands of vulnerable people.

But that is not what happened.

Because supporters like you acted, those Bills were stopped.

Because of you, many vulnerable lives have been saved.

These were two very significant victories. But sadly, they are not the last battles we face this year.

The new Parliamentary session began on Wednesday. We now face three major threats.

  1. Attempts to bring back the Leadbeater assisted suicide Bill and bypass the House of Lords

    The assisted suicide lobby, led by Dignity in Dying, a multi-million-pound pressure group, has made it clear that it is going to attempt to bring back the Leadbeater assisted suicide Bill in the next parliamentary session.

    It then plans to use the Parliament Acts to bypass the House of Lords and force the Bill into law.

  2. Labour Government plans for a major expansion of abortion provision, including financial incentives for ‘lunch-hour’ abortions

    Under these plans, the Government would financially incentivise major abortion providers, BPAS and MSI Reproductive Choices, to provide ‘lunch-hour’ or ‘same-day’ abortions.

    ‘Lunch-hour’ abortion services are walk-in abortion services designed to fit into a woman’s lunch hour.

    Women facing an unplanned pregnancy need time, care and support, not a system that gives abortion clinics a financial incentive to rush them through consultations, scans and abortions on the same day.

    If these plans go ahead, many more lives are likely to be ended by abortion here in the UK.

  3. Extreme abortion up to birth proposals in Scotland

    In Scotland, plans are moving forward to introduce an extreme abortion up to birth law. This would go far beyond the abortion law change recently backed by the Lords for England and Wales.

    A review of abortion law in Scotland, commissioned by Humza Yousaf when he was Scottish First Minister, recommended that the Scottish Government scrap the current 24-week time limit – and abortion be available on social grounds, including for sex-selective purposes, right up to birth.

    The final plans are expected to be brought forward as a Government Bill in the new Scottish Parliament, which begins this Thursday.

If these three major threats succeed, thousands of vulnerable lives will be lost.

We cannot allow this to happen.

We can only defeat these three major threats with your help.

We ran our biggest campaigns ever to help defeat the assisted suicide Bills at Westminster and in Scotland.

That work has made a serious dent in our limited resources.

To cover this gap and ensure we can effectively defeat these three major threats in the coming months, we are aiming to raise at least £199,250 by midnight this Sunday (17 May 2026).

We are, therefore, appealing to you to please give as generously as you can.

Every donation, large or small, will make a crucial difference in saving the lives of the unborn and many others. Plus, if you are a UK taxpayer, £1 becomes £1.25 with Gift Aid at no extra cost to you.

By stopping these threats, YOU can save lives during this new Parliamentary session.

Will you donate now to help protect vulnerable lives from these three major threats?

EMERGENCY
APPEAL
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Help stop three major anti-life threats.

Help stop three major anti-life threats.