Mother’s worst nightmare realised
When Liz Willcox put baby Jasmyn down to sleep one night in 2017, there were no signs to suggest that it would be the last time she would see her baby alive.
But the next morning, the mother-of-three woke to find her worst nightmare realised.
The little girl had died in the night, at only five months and one week old.
“I looked at the baby monitor and saw how still she was,” she told 7NEWS.com.au.
“I just started grabbing her and she was cold and lifeless,” the mother continued.
“I alerted my husband Ben, we called an ambulance and he started performing CPR.
“But I just shut down.”
The coroner determined Jasmyn was an “an extremely healthy baby” and there was “no reason for her death”.
That’s when Liz found out about SIDS.
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome - or SIDS - is the sudden, unexpected death of a child younger than one year old while they sleep.
Though the exact cause is unknown, Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Sydney Rita Machaalani says a baby dies suddenly every second day in Australia.
“No one can comprehend how a healthy baby put to sleep can be found dead the next morning,” she said.
“A ‘stigma’ usually surrounds the parent that they must have done something, but that’s far from the truth.”
Often, she says, a coroner will list the baby’s death as “undetermined”, which means that more children might be dying from the syndrome than officially reported.
After Jasmyn’s passing, Liz was contacted by a charity group called River’s Gift.
The group was established in 2011 by Alex Hamilton and Karl Waddell after their son, River, died in his sleep at only 128 days old.
Liz can only hope other parents who face the same experience can get help quickly.
“You’ll love to get a hold of them earlier. There needs to be something to get charities in touch with them earlier,” she said.
“I think for us, you never want to plan your child’s funeral. It starts here.”
She and Ben are now preparing a legacy in honour of Jasmyn called Uniting for Jasmyn.
The couple also held a gala in conjunction with River’s Gift in 2019.
The second gala, postponed from last year due to COVID, will be held this year on July 10, almost four years to the say since Jasmyn passed away in Eaton’s Hill.