Millie and Louis discovered they were pregnant with twins and they were absolutely overjoyed. In Millie’s family, twins were fairly common and it was exciting for the two of these individuals to bring two more babies into the world.
Although they were excited about the news, doctors then told them that their unborn children suffered from anencephaly, a condition that causes part of the brain to be underdeveloped. Most babies with this condition don’t make it to birth or long after birth.
It came to pass that Millie and Lewis did lose one of the twin girls, Skye, soon after the emergency C-section took place. They were crushed, but they rallied around their surviving and healthy daughter, Callie.
That is when one of mother in the NICU said something that caused Millie to burst into tears.
You’re so lucky you haven’t got twins
Millie went running out of the room crying. She would’ve given anything to have both of her babies.
They knew there must be a way to stop this type of accidental comment from occurring to parents after they lose one of the babies during a multiple birth. That is when the purple butterfly came into existence.
None of the other parents knew what had happened or anything about Skye. The comment was completely innocent and more out of humor… They weren’t to know that I did at one point have two. But the comment nearly broke me. I ran out [of] the room in tears and they had no idea why. I didn’t have the heart to tell them what had happened. A simple sticker would have avoided that entire situation.
Both Millie and Louis are vigilant about raising awareness for this cause, known as the “Skye High Foundation.” The purple butterflies have now shown up in NICU units around the world.
They know that it is impossible to bring Skye back, but they gain comfort in knowing they are helping other parents who are going through the same thing. It makes it well worth the effort.
“Ultimately I will never be able to stop this from happening but the more support groups we can set up and put things in place like the stickers the better it will be. It’s the hardest thing anyone has to deal with.”