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'Nothing prepares you for the loss of a child'

December 10, 2015 11:18
Jennifer Reid with Edward

By

Josh Jackman,

Josh Jackman

1 min read

It is every mother's nightmare. You give birth to a happy, healthy baby. Then, without warning, the child dies.

In April last year, Jennifer and Chris Reid lost their three-month-old son, Edward, to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (Sids), previously known as cot death. "Nothing can ever prepare you for the loss of a child," said the north Londoner, 38, who with her husband, has set up the Teddy's Wish charity in his memory. "Especially something that's so unexplained. It makes the grief harder to bear because there's no reason given. It's against the natural order of life.

"No matter what people say to me, I still feel this unbelievable amount of guilt - that I let him down, that I failed to protect him. I still have to deal with that every day, despite medical assurances that there was nothing I could have done."

Teddy's Wish is funding bereavement support and research into Sids, neonatal death and stillbirth, which together account for around 6,000 infant deaths annually.

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