An innocent comment from one mum to another has prompted Millie Smith from the UK to create purple stickers to mark the cots and incubators of babies who have been part of a multiple delivery, but have lost their siblings.

Millie was watching over her sleeping infant daughter, Callie, when another mother in the room made the ill-comment, “You’re so lucky you don’t have twins.”

Sadly, Millie had in fact carried twins. Twelve weeks into her pregnancy, a scan showed that while one twin was healthy (Callie), the other was not. The twin they named Skye had anencephaly which affects brain development and most infants survive a short term after their birth.

When Millie heard the comment from the other mum, she ran out of the room in tears. She told Babble, “I didn’t have the heart to tell them what had happened. A simple sticker would have avoided that entire situation.”

Millie went on to create a purple butterfly sticker that would help identify babies in NICUS who had been part of a multiple delivery, but had lost their sibling. Millie started Skye’s Wish, a crowdfunding page to raise funds to make the purple butterfly stickers for NICUS.

The sticker reads:

“When visiting this Neonatal unit as either a partner, relative of friend please be aware of the butterfly logo on each cot. This represents a baby that was part of a multiple pregnancy but sadly all of the babies did not survive.”

Millie hopes to expand beyond the butterfly stickers, to raise funds towards expanding dedicated delivery rooms and bereavement midwives for families that experience infant loss.