Yesterday was an odd day. I started the morning with a newborn session - a sweet little boy who was so tiny and cooperative. It was wonderful to see him, and a joy to work with him.
Almost immediately after that session, I got a call from the regional coordinator for NILMDTS. This is a group that does photos for parents who have lost a newborn, as these photos are the only images they are likely to have of their baby. The baby was a little girl named Amelia, who had been born in December at 24 weeks. She has a twin sister still in the NICU. Amelia had been very sick all week and the parents had decided to take her off life support.
Amelia was perfect, and very tiny. She had perfect little fingers and toes - just smaller than a full-term baby. She had a full head of hair. And she had two parents who loved her very much, and weren't really sure how to deal with this. Most parents never go through this situation, but every parent imagines it - what if something happened to my child?
If you would like to see a slideshow of Amelia, you can download it at www.lovebugsphotography.com/AmeliaNILMDTS.exe. The images can be disturbing, especially for young children - so watch with discretion.
I wish I would neverneed to get called again to do a NILMDTS session - I wish that every parent would have the joy of taking their child home and watching him or her grow and be healthy. But the pain of dealing with such raw grief is outweighed by the feeling of purpose I get from the NILMDTS program - I am able to give these parents something important, something they will value forever. When we lost our son Nicholas in 1999, there was no program to take beautiful photos of him. I'm glad that NILMDTS exists to help parents with their loss.
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