On the day after Claudia’s Fifth birthday, Mark and I agreed to be interviewed for the ABC. Needless to say it was very emotional to talk about our daughter’s life and death so close to her birthday and this year in particular it all seemed so raw.
I had been contacted a few days prior to be involved, and I am usually happy to talk to the media about our experience. This article was to highlight ‘Say their Name’, and new national campaign by SANDS to raise awareness of stillbirth. With my previous involvement with SANDS, I was happy to take part.
Briana, who wrote the article, arrived at our house and we welcomed her in with a offer of coffee and a seat around the kitchen table. We chatted casually whilst she arranged her recording equipment. I knew before the interview even started, before Briana even came down the driveway in the ABC van, that it would be far more emotional experience for me than simply relaying my stillbirth experience.
It was. All of this was said through tears.
click on the link to go to our full ABC article: ABC Interview for ‘Say their Name’
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Excerpt below:
Mark Woods remembers the day he was told his daughter had died like it was yesterday.
“The doctor said ‘I’m sorry for your loss’. I’ll never forget those words,” he said.
But Till Heike-Woods did not need to hear those words or see the flat, grey lines on the monitor attached to the ultrasound on her stomach.
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It had been hours since she had felt any movement from the baby she had been carrying around inside her for the past 32 weeks.
“Mark was asleep next to me and I just remember thinking this is going to be everyone’s worst day,” Mrs Heike-Woods recalled having felt earlier that same morning.
“I’ve got two kids asleep and they’ve got to get up and they’ve got to go to school. I’ve got a husband here who wants this baby as well, more than anything.
It took almost 12 hours to deliver their stillborn daughter.
Claudia Woods was born and died on March 20, 2014.
Click on the link to go to our full ABC article: ABC Interview for ‘Say their Name’
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