A BALLOCH woman is raising awareness of stillbirth after losing her son in a bid to erase the stigma around the subject.

Siobhan Rogers, from Haldane, lost her son, Logan, just a few days into the first Covid lockdown in March last year.

Now she is raising funds to donate a cuddle cot to the maternity unit at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley, where Logan was born, to help other families who find themselves in a similar situation.

A cuddle cot is a cooling mattress that stops a baby’s body deteriorating, and can be placed in a cot or even a pram.

It allows parents to stay with them for days or even weeks before their funeral, hugging them, dressing them and taking them out for walks.

When babies pass away in hospital, their bodies are normally taken to the hospital morgue straight away, but a cuddle cot – also known as a cold cot – allows parents to spend time with their babies and bond with them as it slows down natural changes in their body after death.

Siobhan said: “I want to raise awareness of stillbirth and infant loss as I feel it is a very taboo subject not spoken loudly about even though it happens every day.

“We lost our little boy, Logan, last year during the first lockdown at 39+5 weeks.

“Just as we were preparing for his arrival, I went to my normal midwife appointment on the Tuesday, where I heard his heartbeat and everything was perfectly fine.

“On the Saturday, I hadn’t felt him move, so I attended triage at Paisley maternity where I heard the awful news that there was no heartbeat.

“I was alone due to the Covid restrictions and I then had to go home and come back two days later to be induced.

“I gave birth to our beautiful baby boy, Logan Anderson, on March 31, 2020, at 12.56am, weighing 9lbs 11oz.

“He was a perfect little boy and we could not understand why, as a family, this had happened to us.”

Siobhan wants to give other grieving families the chance to spend time with infants they have lost.

She added: “Logan has two older sisters, Sophie and Paige and also one big brother, Caleb, who always include and speak about Logan in everything that they do.

“Logan has become a big brother and his little brother, Callum, has Logan as his middle name as a way of keeping his brother’s memory alive.

“When Logan was born we got to spend some time with him, making special memories, all thanks to a special piece of equipment called a cuddle cot.

“Without this we would not have been able to do anything that we got to do and this is why, as a family, we are raising awareness and breaking the silence around stillbirth.

“Before this happened to us, we did not know that such a thing could ever happen.

“Since then, we have set up a memory page for our boy on Instagram and gained followers from all over the world.

“We have also set up a GoFundMe page to raise money to buy a cuddle cot in memory of Logan as not all hospitals have one and I would love to give other families this opportunity - but I also hope that no one should ever have to use something like this.

“Logan’s dad and I were supposed to do a skydive on Logan’s first birthday but it was cancelled due to Covid restrictions.

“But we will continue as a family to keep raising awareness and also keep him in our memories every day.”