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Local Family Helps Give Back To Grieving Parents Of Stillborn Babies

BRANCH (KFSM)- After a local mom gave birth to a stillborn baby, she received a special gift in the mail and is helping raise money to give back to other grievi...

BRANCH (KFSM)- After a local mom gave birth to a stillborn baby, she received a special gift in the mail and is helping raise money to give back to other grieving families.

In January of 2017, Cody and Olivia Sing were expecting their third child, a babygirl. They chose the name Myla Rose.

"We had an appointment on a Thursday, I was almost 30 weeks and everything was fine," Olivia said. "Then on Sunday, I started bleeding and went to the hospital and there was no heartbeat."

Olivia had a c-section the next day and she and her husband describe it as, "shocking."

"We got handed this paper to fill out with her footprints and our favorite colors and to sign it," Olivia said.

A few weeks later, a plate with Myla's name and footprints on it came in the mail.

"To come home to an empty crib and clothes that got passed down for her to wear, I didn`t really have anything to remember her other than just my memories," Olivia said. "To have her footprints was like she really was real. I really did carry this baby."

That feeling lead Olivia to come up with an idea to help other moms who gave birth to stillborn babies, to make sure they also have a keepsake after going home.

Six-year-old Charleigh and three-year-old Reva help their mom create neck coolers that they sell together at the farmers market to raise money to pay for plates for other families.

"I pick out the fabric and I have to sew them and fill them," Charleigh said.

"You have to put some pins in them," Reva said.

"For them to really be able to see a way to actually do something to help or just to make a difference," Olivia said. "There`s nothing to say. There`s no way to help when someone loses a child at any age or anybody."

The Sings said it's a way to celebrate their baby, Myla in heaven, while also holding tight to the family that is here on earth.

"We couldn`t let our grief paralyze us and we could have let life kind of stop after that, but we had two other kids who were also hurting and needing their parents to continue on," Olivia said.

The plates are created by a non-profit based out of Little Rock called Mamie's Poppy Plates and serve nearly 40 hospitals in Arkansas and even more nationwide.

For the plates donated from the fundraising of the Sing family, they will each have baby Myla's name painted on the back.

For more information about Mamie's Poppy Plates or for a list of the hospitals the organization serves, click here.

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