Couple set up charity for grieving parents after daughter's stillbirth

Warning: This story contains discussion of stillbirth and details that some readers will find distressing

It should have been a moment of joy for Jade Morris and her partner Joe Bebbington - the first-time parents were expecting to meet their new daughter.

But waking up after an emergency C-section, Jade heard from her partner that baby Felicity had not survived.

The couple, from Leamington, in Warwickshire, have now set up charity Felicity's Foundation to provide other parents going through a similar experience with practical and emotional support.

Jade and Joe had gone to an appointment at Warwick Hospital on 23 January knowing that their baby - at 36 weeks gestation - needed steroid injections as scans had shown she was undersized.

But tests on the day revealed the baby's heartbeat had slowed dramatically, prompting an emergency Caesarean.

"I went to sleep thinking she was going to be there when I woke up, alive," Jade, 29, said.

"They told me I had to sign the forms quickly whilst I was being knocked out and I didn't know what the date was.

"I went to sleep picturing waking up and hearing her cry and everyone being happy, but I woke up and Joe was opposite me and he was the one who said she didn't make it."

Felicity died due to cord compression, where the umbilical cord gets twisted and cuts off the supply of blood from the placenta.

The first indication of the compression was when staff at Warwick Hospital saw Felicity's pulse had dropped.

"They [babies] can live for a certain amount of time while the cord is compressed, but it's not very long," Jade said.

"So she could have been squeezing it or sitting on it, we'll never know.

"But by the time they got to her, the cord had given up and her heart had stopped."

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Jade received the emergency C-section under general anaesthetic, because there was no time for an epidural.

She said: "I was coming round and I didn't know what was happening and it wasn't until I got into the room and they gave her to me.

"I thought she was just sleeping, I didn't really know, but everyone was crying and it was bizarre.

"It took a good few hours for it to sink in. It didn't make any sense."

After Felicity's death, Jade and Joe were able to spend two weeks with her in the Willow Room, a dedicated area at Warwick Hospital with a temperature-controlled cooling cot that allows parents who have suffered a stillbirth to have time with their baby, to aid their grieving process.

According to data from the Office for National Statistics, about one in every 250 births in England and Wales is a stillbirth, meaning 2,255 mums suffered the same loss as Jade in 2025.

"You don't realise until you're here, there's a whole other world of people going through this you don't hear about it, if you haven't gone through it yourself," she said.

"Some hospitals don't even have a bereavement suite, so people will have their child and have to say goodbye in a matter of days, which is unfathomable."

After getting home, the couple decided they needed to help other parents who had experienced a stillbirth cope with their loss and remember their babies.

Felicity's Foundation was in part prompted by the support and compassion they had received at Warwick Hospital.

"When we first set it up, we didn't think it would get the traction is has got, but it's a good thing that it's not blown up completely, because we want a change, we want it to stop, but we're here when the inevitable happens," Jade said.

"We've got a group chat with 32 mothers across the UK since January that have lost babies through stillbirth, whether that's placental issues or umbilical cord issues."

What makes things harder for the 29-year-old is that she works in a baby room at a nursery and is around children and their parents, who often struggle to find the right words when they hear about Felicity.

"People almost find it a bit awkward and they don't really know what to say, which I find crazy because yes it's awful and hard to comprehend, but if somebody lost a parent, you'd know how to react.

"But when someone loses a child, people find it almost easier to say nothing. And that can make it very isolating."

Jade said a recent holiday to Devon had only amplified the couple's sense of loss - a trip that they had hoped to make as a family.

"You don't think about it until you get to that point. And then you're grieving that trip and that life. We should be building sandcastles with her and you're not," she said.

"It's like every day there's a new something you should have been doing with her. The grief never fully goes away because it's always present."

Jade said she took comfort in a present from her cousin - a Birth Bear that was the same size and weight as Felicity at birth.

She said it had been a "godsend" because she missed being pregnant, and also missed the time spent with her in the Willow Room at hospital.

Felicity's Foundation has supplied 10 similar bears to other parents, with more enquiries coming in.

Jade said: "One of our families, her grandparent never got to meet her little girl and she messaged me to say how amazing the teddy is, because her nan got to meet her baby without physically being able to meet her baby and it's brought them so much comfort."

She said the appeal of the bears had seen other grieving families around the world get in touch, with one already sent to a mum in Germany and the foundation is in talks with an influencer in Australia.

"We expected it to stay just West Midlands and it's gone a bit wider than that. The more people we can help the better.

"And for us, the more people that know Felicity's name, the better."

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