Lauren Doberde and Zach Greenwood are a happy young couple from Rostale, North England who happen to be parents to a wonderful little girl named Gracie when they welcome into this world. In 2015, a few years after they’ve been living together, Lauren studied media, hair and makeup at College and after giving birth to her firstborn Gracie, she became a fulltime mother to look after their little girl.
Lauren was pregnant with her second child, a news both her and Zach were overjoyed with. They were about to have not one, but two Angels roaming their house with joy and laughter. However, nearly two months into her pregnancy, the couple received the most terrible news a parent could receive. Their daughter Gracie was seriously ill. Their baby girl had a brain tumor in its final stage.
The young parents were devastated by the news and one heart wrenching question kept haunting their minds and wrenching their hearts with it. With her second baby ever get to meet its big sister? After the heartbreaking and devastating diagnosis, baby Gracie was moved into dairy and House Children’s Hospice.
Palliative nurses were looking after her while she was staying there and luckily enough, Lauren and Zach were also able to stay there with her as part of respite stay. During Gracie’s stay at the Hospice, the most amazing thing happened to the Saturn family.
One night while Lauren was sleeping at Dorian’s House, she suddenly felt incredible pain in her abdomen, which is something that could have been ignored had she not been heavily pregnant and eight days past her due date, Lauren was rushed to the hospital in the middle of the night ready to deliver the baby.
However, only a short while later, the contractions she first thought she was having stopped. Thinking it was over, she just went back to the Hospice to stay with Gracie. But later that same day, Lauren’s waters broke and there wasn’t enough time to get her back to the hospital. She quickly realized that she was going to give birth at the Hospice, Lauren told local newspaper the Lancashire Post.
It had crossed my mind that I might go into labor and we brought all the baby’s stuff, but I didn’t think it would happen, Lauren said to the same newspaper. One of the pediatric palliative care nurses, Louise Leach, did her best to look after Lauren W when she was in labor until the midwife arrived and then at 10:30 p.m.
Lauren gave birth to a beautiful and healthy boy who they named Charlie Christopher. Baby Charlie was born safely after a speedy labor in the most unforeseen places for giving birth. Lauren told a Lancashire Post that she expected to have a long, slow and extremely painful labor and lucky for her, she was wrong. Lauren also praised the support of Nurse Leach Louise, who was brilliant and stood by her side until the baby was safely delivered and made its first steps into the world.
I couldn’t have done it without her. She went on to explain how her partner Zach had been struggling to contact the midwife, but Thankfully Nurse Leech was able to remain calm and nerfree despite the panic that was raining at the time.
Baby Charlie’s birth was a first for the Hospice, a place not normally associated with such joyous events. Even the chief executive of the establishment, Georgina Cox, was quick to congratulate the young couple. It was such a lovely surprise to welcome little Charlie to the world there who was the first birth in our 24 year history, Cox said.
Charlie’s arrival was a major event and a great deal to the staff at Dorian House. Cox described being touched by the pure joy on the faces of the parents and she praised the way the nurses reacted and handled the unusual situation.
This extra special delivery shows how our staff can rise to any occasion and provide the support our families need whatever the situation, she said. And their efforts were certainly appreciated by Lauren and her husband as they made her labor much easier and stress free, especially in the conditions they were in. I don’t know what I would have done without them, she told ITV.
What’s more, the staff was feeling over the moon to have been part of such a special occasion, Lauren told the Lancashire Post. Even though Dorian’s House is a place for treating sick children and heartbroken families, Cox said that Charlie’s story had brought immense joy to everyone who witnessed it.
Indeed, the chief executive described Charlie’s arrival as a true symbol of hope in the darkest of times, times of sickness and death. But probably the most touching part of this story is that Baby Charlie did get to meet his big sister Gracie. Little Gracie took the chance to kiss her baby brother in a big cup the first time she got to meet her little brother.
When Charlie was safely delivered, the couple was most eager to cherish the time they had left as a family of four and spend the remaining time they had with Gracie making lasting memories even if they were her last. We just want to spend as much time together as a family, Lauren said with a sad but grateful tone.
Tragically, it’s unlikely that Charlie will ever remember meeting Gracie as he was just a newborn when he first got to see her and he would probably have no memory of their time together. But there’s still some solace in the fact that he will always have the photos to show that he was once in the company of his older sister fighting cancer on her last days.