Donations raised in memory of a baby girl have been used to buy a “cuddle cot” for Raigmore Hospital.
Lily-Alexis Janet Aird was born to Emma McAllister and David Aird on December 5 last year but passed away the next day.
Her family wanted give something back to the maternity unit which had done so much for them in memory of their daughter.
The couple, who live in Alness, raised more than £1,500 allowing them to buy a cuddle cot and a moses basket for the Inverness hospital.
The device cools the body, allowing parents to spend some extra time with their baby and say goodbye when they are ready.
The family were told 24 weeks into the pregnancy that Lily had a diaphragmatic hernia and at 30 weeks it was discovered she also had Edwards Syndrome and was unlikely to survive birth.
Ms McAllister said: “She weighed 4lb 10oz at birth which is actually quite big given how poorly she was.
“We had hoped we would get to spend a couple of minutes with her but she was so strong and brave that we got to spend 29 hours with her at the hospital until she sadly passed away.
“We were in a room on our own with a double bed that allowed her to sleep between us.”
The couple wanted to take Lily home but they weren’t able to use the single cuddle cot that they had in the hospital at the time.
She said: “We managed. We used ice packs which we kept having to change which did add to the stress of what we were going through but we also got to spend a week at home with our daughter. We got more time with her, we got more photos and we got those extra memories which are just everything.”
The couple were able to hand over the cuddle cot to the hospital last month and are now looking to the future, with Ms McAllister expecting a baby boy in November.
Caron Cruickshank, divisional midwifery manger at Raigmore said: “We’ve have the resources for looking after women here, we have training for staff but we didn’t have anything for when the parents go home and this extra cot will make a huge difference to that.
“It was good to meet Emma and David and to hear how appreciative they were of the care and support they received.”
