THE parents of a stillborn baby want to create a lasting legacy in memory of their ‘precious and beautiful’ daughter.

Heartbroken Sarah Bernasconi, who believed she would never be able to conceive, and partner Mark Parsons were totally devastated when told their first child Maggie Pearl had passed away.

But now, despite their grief, they have said they want to assist other bereaved parents as part of their daughter’s legacy by raising money for a cold cot for Royal Blackburn Hospital.

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A cold cot is designed to keep a baby’s body cool after its death, allowing parents and family to have a longer period to say a proper good bye.

The couple said they also gained great comfort after being given a memory box, including baby clothes, camera memory card and two teddies, by hospital staff so they could take pictures of Maggie in the hours after her birth earlier this month.

They also want to make more available for other parents by raising money.

Sarah said: “Without the memory box we would not have had pictures of our daughter, of her daddy cutting the cord and her in my arms.

“My family flew over from Spain and we were in a room with our daughter in the cold cot and it was like we were a family....it helped like you would not believe. Maggie was so perfect.”

Sarah and Mark, of Mitton Close, Livesey, want to help families who lose children at the paediatric unit in Blackburn, which currently doesn’t have the same level of bereavement care as Burnley General Hospital where Maggie was born.

Every year in the UK one in every 200 babies are stillborn, making it 15 times more common than cot death.

Sarah, who is registered disabled because of a chronic back problem which has required numerous operations, plans to raise around £3,500.

She said: “A lot of people are saying we are inspiring and brave, I do not feel like that, I feel broken.

“But this has given us a reason to go on.”

“Maggie was in Oliver’s Cot and we are eternally grateful to his parents. I have been in contact with them,” said the 34-year-old, talking about Lynsey and Simon Jordan, from Feniscowles, who donated two cold cots to the ‘serenity suite’ in Burnley following the birth of their stillborn son.

Sarah said she was so shocked she had managed to fall pregnant, after believing she would never conceive, that she put all the scans and other details on Facebook so when Maggie was stillborn there was an outpouring of sympathy and donations.

“She was like a miracle child and it was like an immaculate conception, Mark and I had only been together a few months,” said Sarah, the eldest of six.

Mark and Joanne Edwards, from Darwen, set up Friends of Serenity in 2013 after they lost their baby son Luke.

Last month they opened a second ‘serenity suite’ room at Burnley Hospital so families can spend time with their baby to say goodbye after raising more than £30,000.

Mrs Edwards said: “The acquisition of a cold cot and memory boxes in Blackburn will be invaluable for parents put in this terrible position.

“I understand the paediatric unit currently doesn’t have a cold cot so Sarah and Mark would be ensuring that precious little Maggie was having a positive effect for other parents in the future.

“The cot will allow parents to be closer to the their child during the first hours and days after losing them. It allows the family to remain physically close.” Angela O’Toole, acting head of Midwifery at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “We are extremely grateful to Sarah and her family for their wish to raise funds to buy an additional cold cot that other families will be able to use.

“It’s always tragic when a family suffers a stillbirth and we are happy to support anyone who wants to raise money to help others in a similar situation following their experience.”

The Trust has also recently appointed specialist midwife Louise Bardon, who will spend half her time with bereaved families.