Parents Chrissie and Prabhoo Bhaskar thank staff at Colchester General Hospital after daughter is stillborn at 29 weeks

Priya-Anne Bhaskar was delivered by staff at Colchester General Hospital after her heart stopped beating in the womb two days earlier.

Now mum Chrissie and dad Prabhoo are raising money to say thank you to staff at the Rosemary suite for their support.

Mrs Bhaskar had been admitted to hospital after suffering pains on Friday, August 18.

On that morning, she had not felt baby Priya-Anne move and hospital tests revealed her heart had stopped beating.

The 26-year-old, who lives in the Hythe, was then transferred to the Rosemary suite to be induced.

Priya-Anne arrived at 5.25pm on Monday, August 21.

Mrs Bhaskar said: “It’s hard to put it into words but we want to raise money and we want to tell Priya’s story because we want people to know she was here - she existed.

“I want to sure make the loss of my beautiful little girl is not in vain.”

She added: “The staff there were absolutely amazing, she was put onto my tummy and they were happy just to let her stay with me.

“They even let Prabhoo cut the cord. They also gave us a memory box for us to fill with whatever we wanted and gave us a camera to take some family pictures with her and we even took hand and foot impressions.

“They were just absolutely amazing, they didn’t treat her as if she wasn’t there. They treated her like she was a live baby by wrapping her up.

“I don’t know if people will understand it but that day was our worst time and our best time ever.

“We will never forget the time we had with her and that is all thanks to the staff, especially our midwife, Charlie Beer, who was so good to us.”

Priya-Anne is the couple’s first child and they had found out her sex at a private scan shortly before her planned 20-week scan.

Mrs Bhaskar added: “I went ahead and booked it because I was so excited and we have a picture of her from that as well.”

Colchester General Hospital has also pledged to pay for little Priya-Anne’s funeral.

The couple have set up a fundraising page and hope to be able to handover £1,000 to the suite.

Mrs Bhaskar added: “The team there are amazing human beings and the Rosemary suite is a very kind idea.

“Please spare anything you can so I can raise money so they could keep the suite up to date and comfortable for all families who suffer a loss of a baby.

“We want to keep Priya’s memory shining bright.”

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• The family asked us to use these photographs of their daughter with this article.