Stillbirth: project to reduce number of stillborn babies in Southeast Asia is helping parents have healthy pregnancies
- Project Sidekicks, launched by parenting community platform TheAsianparent, aims to reduce stillbirth rates in Southeast Asia by 10 per cent in three years
- Deanna Lim is sharing her experiences as part of the project; her son Nathaniel was stillborn in 2016 following a complication-free pregnancy
On February 2, 2016, Deanna Lim and her husband Timothy made their way to hospital. The young Singaporeans – Deanna was 30, Timothy 29 – were excited about the birth of their first child, but also a little anxious.
“The day before, I couldn’t feel the baby moving, but we didn’t think it was a big issue because he was a big baby and tight in my stomach, which I was told could restrict his movement,” says Deanna via Zoom from Singapore.
“I didn’t have any complications during my 39-week pregnancy, all my tests were perfect. Everything was great, so you don’t think anything’s wrong.”
But there was something wrong, and Deanna knew it when she saw the nurse desperately trying to find a heartbeat. “She was shifting the heart monitor around so much … Then the gynaecologist turned up and told us the baby had gone.”
At 4.35pm that day, Nathaniel, delivered by caesarean section, was stillborn, defined as a baby born with no signs of life. He weighed 2.5kg (5.5lbs). The following day the couple, along with a small group of family and friends, attended his funeral. There was no explanation for his death. The couple declined an autopsy.