Rick Hansen’s daughter writes moving blog post about stillborn son

WATCH ABOVE: Rick Hansen’s daughter is receiving an outpouring of support after her blog post about her stillborn baby boy. Allison Vuchnich reports

VANCOUVER – Rick Hansen’s daughter Emma and her husband Aaron are receiving messages of support and love from people online after Emma wrote a blog post about their son being “born still.”

Hansen, a Canadian Paralympian who is best known for his Man in Motion World Tour, shared the post on his Facebook page on Tuesday.

“Sending all my love to my daughter Emma and her husband Aaron, who have shown incredible strength and grace during this heartbreaking loss,” said Hansen in the post. “Our family is so grateful and touched for all your support. Little baby Reid will be loved and remembered forever.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Sending all my love to my daughter Emma and her husband Aaron, who have shown incredible strength and grace during this heartbreaking loss," said Hansen in the post. "Our family is so grateful and touched for all your support. Little baby Reid will be loved and remembered forever."

Emma and Aaron were due to welcome their baby into the world on April 4, but he died one day before his due date.

“This is not the story I had been drafting in my mind over the weeks leading up to our due date,” Emma writes at the beginning of her blog post. “I was imagining excited phone calls, a joyous labor, and my crying baby on my chest at the end of it all. But this story still needs to be written and shared as it would have had it played out to my most perfect plan. For though he was born still, he was still born. This is for you my darling Reid.”

Emma woke up on Good Friday, April 3, feeling tired but excited. However, she soon started to notice her baby hadn’t moved in a while. However, she had felt him kicking her ribs past midnight while she tried to fall asleep. Later that morning she called her husband so he could help her use a Doppler, a device which allows you to hear a baby’s heartbeat in the womb.

“Those moments on our bed as we tried to pick up his heartbeat were the first of what would be a string of painfully slow pockets of time over the next days,” writes Emma.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Those moments on our bed as we tried to pick up his heartbeat were the first of what would be a string of painfully slow pockets of time over the next days," writes Emma.

After calling their prenatal care program, the couple rushed to BC Women’s Hospital, but Emma still had not felt the baby move. She was checked out by one nurse and then taken to a private room to be hooked up to a stronger monitoring system.

However, there was just one heartbeat — hers.

I saw that it was still – I knew what this meant, but I couldn’t believe that this was actually happening. I willed his heart to start beating. The resident asked for the attending, Dr. Lim, as she kept the ultrasound firmly positioned on his heart. Dr. Lim arrived, and the resident asked for confirmation that she had the ultrasound on the heart. He replied yes and asked her to turn on the blood flow imaging. And then she spoke the worst words I’ll ever hear:

“Ok. I have the ultrasound focused on his heart now. Do you see that? It’s not moving. And there’s no red and blue to signify blood flow. I’m so sorry, but your baby is dead.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: I saw that it was still - I knew what this meant, but I couldn't believe that this was actually happening. I willed his heart to start beating. The resident asked for the attending, Dr. Lim, as she kept the ultrasound firmly positioned on his heart. Dr. Lim arrived, and the resident asked for confirmation that she had the ultrasound on the heart. He replied yes and asked her to turn on the blood flow imaging. And then she spoke the worst words I'll ever hear:</p><p><em>"Ok. I have the ultrasound focused on his heart now. Do you see that? It's not moving. And there's no red and blue to signify blood flow. I'm so sorry, but your baby is dead."</em>

“He lived for 39 weeks and 6 days in my womb, and it didn’t seem possible for him to just stop living one day before his due date. One day,” Emma writes.

Aaron had to call their parents and tell them the news. When they arrived, the couple found out what was going to happen next.

Emma was going to have to deliver the baby naturally. After getting Cervidil inserted to soften the cervix, the family went home to rest and prepare.

They had only been home for an hour when contractions started. Emma wanted to labour at home for as long as possible, but the contractions became too intense and painful. After being admitted to BC Women’s Hospital again Emma eventually asked for an epidural, even though she had said she wouldn’t get one. But the exhaustion and the emotional toll proved to be too much.

“At 2:24am on April 4^th, 2015 our beautiful son, Reid Richard VandenBrink, was born sleeping.”

Emma writes Reid was beautiful and perfect.

They found out Reid’s death was caused by a “tight true knot in his cord.”

We were told he must have done a few summersaults when he was younger and tied it when he was very small – it was so close to his body. Then when he dropped in preparation for his birth it slowly started to tighten. Our little monkey, he was having too much fun in there. My heart felt heavy knowing what had happened. On one hand it brought a small bit of relief to know it wasn’t something we did or didn’t do. Knots are undetectable. But that same knowledge brought tremendous grief through the realization that his passing from this knot happened completely out of our control. We couldn’t have protected him from this.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: We were told he must have done a few summersaults when he was younger and tied it when he was very small - it was so close to his body. Then when he dropped in preparation for his birth it slowly started to tighten. Our little monkey, he was having too much fun in there. My heart felt heavy knowing what had happened. On one hand it brought a small bit of relief to know it wasn't something we did or didn't do. Knots are undetectable. But that same knowledge brought tremendous grief through the realization that his passing from this knot happened completely out of our control. We couldn't have protected him from this.

Emma and Aaron welcomed their family and friends to meet their son. Emma writes they’ll never understand why God chose Reid to be by his side so soon.

However, they are grateful to know Reid touched so many lives during this brief time on this earth.

We want to thank you all for reaching out to us with condolences, prayers, words of strength, poems, verses, and your own similar stories. We’ve been reading them from the start and they are helping us navigate this difficult time. We are broken, and we have been forever changed. We don’t know why this is God’s plan for us, and though this pain will never go away we are holding fast to His promise that this is not the end. With Reid in our hearts we will learn how to live out this new plan – as the family of three that we became on April 4^th, 2015.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: We want to thank you all for reaching out to us with condolences, prayers, words of strength, poems, verses, and your own similar stories. We've been reading them from the start and they are helping us navigate this difficult time. We are broken, and we have been forever changed. We don't know why this is God's plan for us, and though this pain will never go away we are holding fast to His promise that this is not the end. With Reid in our hearts we will learn how to live out this new plan - as the family of three that we became on April 4^th, 2015.