A heartbroken mother lived with her stillborn daughter for two weeks. She even took her for walks and also introduced the stillborn baby to her other siblings.

27-year-old Emma Woodhouse had to have an emergency C-section to give birth to her twin girls Jessica and Bella at just 29 weeks in June earlier this year. Jessica's umbilical cord had ruptured in the womb which required the emergency C-section. By some miracle, Bella was able to survive but Jessica was a stillborn even though medics tried for 22 minutes to revive her.

Emma was able to bring Jessica home thanks to a 'cooling cot' and spent some time taking care of her daughter, bathing her, going for walks with her and even introducing the baby to her other children before Jessica's cremation took place. It is Emma's belief that Jessica died in order to save her twin and she plans to buy Jessica presents and a stocking for Christmas.

As reported by DailyMail, Woodhouse who is from Lancaster, Lancashire, shared, "From the moment Jessica was born, I just fell in love with her, she looked so perfect. Spending that fortnight with her and her sister was so, so wonderful. We want to show people that it's possible to spend time with your baby after they've passed and to make memories with them."

"This shouldn't be such a taboo subject. Her face was so perfect, I didn't want to leave her on her own. Although she had passed away, she's my daughter and I wanted to spend as much time with her as I could," she continued.

Emma had a very high-risk pregnancy due to the unique shape of her womb which was heart-shaped. This means that her twins were at a very high risk of being born prematurely. She went into labor at just 29 weeks and was rushed to the Royal Lancaster Infirmary. The Doctors were able to save and safely deliver Bella.

The devastating news of the stillborn baby was given to Emma by her husband Paul. "It was amazing to find out that I was going to have twins as I'd always wanted them. But I felt weird for four weeks after I found out I was pregnant, which was very, very early," Emma shared. "The pregnancy felt different and all along I was panicking that something was wrong."

"During the C-section, it was very scary, my husband wasn't even allowed in. Straight away afterward I asked him if she was OK. Paul looked at me and said that they'd saved Bella but couldn't save Jessica. Being told that she was gone was terrible, it felt like it wasn't real and that I was in a nightmare," she revealed.

"It's the strangest feeling. You have all the joy of a newborn but also the devastation of the loss of a newborn. I was in shock for a long time," she continued. After the tragic news, the couple were shifted into a bereavement suite in the hospital along with a cooling cot and the couple were able to spend a fortnight visiting their child. 

In the second week, the nurses allowed the couple to keep Jessica in a Moses basket in the hospital mortuary so that her skin would not deteriorate. "We kept in her a Moses basket in the mortuary so she wouldn't turn blue," Emma said. 

"The staff were amazing, they were all specially trained and tried to give us as many opportunities as possible to make memories with her. They gave us much as time as we wanted. We brought Jack in to meet her. Jack is very grown up but I don't really think he understood that I was in the hospital," Emma shared.

"I told him that Bella and Jessica had come early and then explained to him that she'd gone to heaven. He got upset and then he held her, cuddled her and played with her hands and feet. It was beautiful to see. We weren't sure about the other kids and the midwife said to bring them to play near her," she added. 

For Jessica's final day, Emma said, "'I washed her skin and her hair and it was like washing any other of my children. We took some pics of Jessica and Bella together and then the woman from the funeral director came to collect her. It felt complete putting them together when I got to hold both of them. It felt right."

"Not a day goes by when I don't think about her. We include her in everything that we do because we want to keep her memory alive. We want to keep her included in everything. Jessica gave Bella life and we see so much of her in Bella. Whenever I see Bella I see Jessica as well," she revealed.