Selfless mum who carried terminal baby to full term so she could donate organs reveals heartbreak at finding tot is too SMALL to save lives
Hayley Martin, 30, from Hull found out at her five month scan that her baby would be stillborn but decided to carry on with the pregnancy to help save lives
A BRAVE mum who decided to donate her unborn child's organs to help others was devastated to find out her daughter was born too small to save lives.
Little Ava-Joy had bilateral renal agenesis, a condition in which the kidneys do not form and her parents were told at the five month scan that she would be stillborn.
Last year we revealed that Hayley Martin, 30, from Hull, had decided to continue with her pregnancy when she found out her baby was stillborn in order to help save the lives of other children.
Hayley and her husband Scott had planned to donate Ava's heart tissue to another ill child but, sadly, have now revealed that Ava was born too small to be able to donate her organs.
The couple that Ava was born just marginally underweight for her organs to be retrieved.
Mum Hayley said: "When we found out she was just 55g underweight - the same weight as a packet of crisps - we were devastated.
"It wasn't the only reason we carried on with the pregnancy but it would have been so great for her to have been able to help another child. I plan to donate a kidney in her honour."
Despite the sadness, Ava was born on January 8 and lived for 96 minutes, crying, wriggling and gripping her mother's finger.
Hayley added: "Nothing prepares you for your own child dying. Every day you expect to wake up from your worst nightmare and you don't.
"But those 96 minutes that she was alive were the best of our lives. I would do it all again.
"I wouldn't give up those 96 minutes for anything in this world. Ava has touched more lives in those minutes than I would in 96 years."
Hayley and Scott had been unaware that anything was wrong with their baby until their 20 week scan, when they found out that Ava had bilateral renal agenesis, a condition that means neither of the kidneys develop. The condition is always fatal.
Hayley said, at the time: "My feelings were that the longer I could hold onto the baby, then the longer we’d be together. I wasn’t ready to say goodbye."
The couple had to break the devastating news that Ava wouldn't be coming home to their three older children, Kiowa, seven, Layla, five, and Oliver, two.
She explained to them that Ava was going to heaven to be with her granddad, who was going to look after her.
Now the family have the heartbreaking task of organising Ava's funeral, where they want family and friends to wear pink, green or blue colours. These are colours that are associated medically with problems with the kidneys.
Hayley and Scott are also setting up a charity in Ava's name to provide support for women who choose to continue with their pregnancies when they know their baby will die.
Most read in Fabulous
Meanwhile, another mum revealed her heartbreak at giving birth to her stillborn baby girl while hearing the cries of other newborn babies in the ward.
And another mum shared pictures of her stillborn daughter to raise awareness of a rare illness which poisoned the baby in the womb.