All sponsored and paid posts will always be clearly stated as such, but, as always, I only ever include brands, services and products that I absolutely love. I hope [Ask Me His Name] does serve to change the narrative of the conversation, and just make everything a little easier, and a little bit less serious for everyone. So giving women that confidence and pointing them in the right direction to talk to somebody who knows how they’re feeling, is incredibly important. After the death of her son, Teddy, at three days old, Elle started writing to navigate her new life and as a way to feel purpose again.

I literally went from room to room just doing that, and taking photos of it and putting it on Instagram, not with the intention of starting a blog at all, just because I needed it for my own sanity. They’re still here, they’re still living and breathing, they’ve got a whole life ahead of them, we need to make sure this isn’t weird forever. anything to allow them to speak proudly about their child because they are still parents and still proud of their children no matter how long they spent on this earth. As I spoke to Elle that day I decided to invite her onto the podcast to talk about her version of motherhood with her friend Michelle Cottle, whose daughter Orla was born sleeping in 2016.This is a book that anybody can read, whether you have lost a child yourself, know someone who has lost a child or is just interested in Elle and her story. Three days after delivering him into the world, she sat with Teddy as he took his last breaths, and tucked him in for the final time. Nobody had written a really honest account of what it feels like to go through that, and how do you start to think about the positive stuff again?

In the UK, 1 in 4 pregnancies end in loss, but conversations about the heartbreakingly frequent issue of baby loss are few and far between. I didn't know how much I would long for people to say my son Teddy's name, to not treat him like he didn't exist. But when it comes to awful issues like miscarriage, stillbirth, and neonatal death, far too many people have to experience it directly.And when I turn and say ‘Actually 15 babies die every day in the UK’ they assume that includes miscarriage, and I’m like 'No that’s not to do with miscarriage, that’s just a baby that’s born after 33 weeks pregnancy, in the UK, that’s stillborn or died in the first two weeks of life. This book was sometimes difficult to read and I often found myself bursting into tears of sympathy but it has taught me so much.

You know how therapeutic it is to have a really good clear out at home, and that whole ‘tidy desk, tidy mind’ thing of deciding to have a really good clear up, or whatever?You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Elle is an inspirational woman and reading as someone who lost a child I could identify with everything she said. I am a health visitor and as a team we are looking at ways we can support our bereaved parents after a loss. Briefly talking about her own childhood, meeting Nico (her husband), getting married, getting Borris and then starting to try for a baby. I heard somebody say not that long ago, that they went to counselling after many many years of dealing with loss, and their counsellor said ‘What you’ve got to remember about emotions is, you can run from them and you can try and hide from them as long as you like, but they’re coming for you!

Elle Wright had an admittedly easy pregnancy - her scans went well, she and her baby were healthy throughout, and in May 2016, she and her husband welcomed their son, Teddy, into the world. So I’m telling the story, and telling people what happened, and hopefully letting it serve as an education for everyone.This was clearly a labour of love, and no doubt writing it has been part of the therapeutic recovery process for the author. Honest, heart breaking and yet beautifully uplifting account of Elle and her baby boy Teddy, whom she did not get to bring home.