My son Jack was born perfect and on time, but he died in my arms the first time I held him. This is my story and what I want all mothers to know

Amylee Magalhaes, 34, held her three-day-old baby in her arms for the very first time as he took his last breath.

His name was Jac. He was born on January 1, 2014 with a full head of hair and he fought hard to stay alive, but tragically didn’t make it.

Speaking to FEMAIL, Amylee said she had never thought about leaving the hospital without a baby when she gave birth a few days earlier.

Her pregnancy had been perfect and her birth plan was simple. Go to the hospital with her husband Thiago, sister Katie, mom and dad and have a baby boy.

Then everything went wrong and her simple plan turned into a nightmare.

‘After 48 hours I started to get really tired. “I passed out trying to push,” she said.

Amylee can’t remember the moment things started to go wrong, but her sister Katie, who was by her side the entire time, remembers every gruesome detail.

“I looked at my mom and I just knew it wasn’t right: We had to get Amylee out of there,” she said.

Amylee was transferred by ambulance to a larger hospital. Her loved ones followed close behind. Once she arrived, she had an emergency caesarean section.

‘Trauma cuts memories. “I was in and out, but I remember waking up in a room with a nurse,” she said.

Her family were all by the baby’s side.

“When they finally brought me to him, I was shocked: he was hooked up to every machine you could think of,” she said.

“My husband was there, and Katie, my mother and the doctor kept repeating to me, ‘He’s not doing well,’” she cried.

At that point, all they knew was that Jack’s blood wasn’t clotting and that there was a problem with his lungs.

Then the doctors explained that they had to take him to a major hospital, but Amylee was not allowed to go with him.

She was numb with disbelief as they stabilized Jack and sent him away with her parents in the back of an ambulance.

Then everything changed again.

‘Half an hour after they left, they told me they had to let me go. He had crashed and they didn’t think he would survive the journey.’

Jack made it to the hospital and even showed signs of improvement for two days before his health deteriorated overnight and he relied solely on machines to stay alive.

When the medical team disconnected her baby, Amylee was able to hold him for the first time.

Her family arranged for a photographer to be there and capture those powerful first and last hugs.

‘Everything had been so exciting – then I left the hospital empty-handed. I could not believe it. “I was in shock,” she said.

Katie, who struggled with her own journey to motherhood after many failed rounds of IVF, said her heart broke watching her sister get lost in her pain.

“Before Jack, we all lived in a different world,” Katie explained. ‘I’ll never forget the moment the nurse took Jack out of the room.

“Amylee just fell to the ground in pain. She doesn’t remember that moment, but it’s one I’ll never forget.”

Katie was very excited about becoming an aunt, but was instead assigned the role of family support worker.

She bounced between her sister and mother, helping them through the fog of despair, delivering food and making sure they made the impossible journey outside every day.

It was then, in deep desperation, that Katie stumbled upon her love of sewing.

Her mother was a seamstress and she started doing it with her around the table – as something to help her through the pain.

They decided to post them on Etsy Tasty Jacks as a company name – as a nod to the family’s prodigal son.

Before they knew it, they had a six-week waiting list for their crafts – mostly cute sheets.

“I was sewing from the moment I got home, just taking orders,” Katie said.

At the time, Amylee was still navigating her own grief. Then she discovered she was pregnant again.

“I tried to get pregnant because at the time I thought the only thing that could fix my feelings was having a baby in my arms,” she said.

Katie now lived with Amylee and supported her through her grief and fear of becoming pregnant again when she found out IVF had finally worked.

The pregnancy was difficult and she was told her daughter Millie might not survive, but she did.

“We did IVF for years and she was the only one who stuck,” Katie said.

The women still live together and have two beautiful young girls who look “more like sisters than cousins.”

When they were pregnant, Katie came up with the crazy idea to turn Snuggly Jacks into a “real business” so they never had to go to work again.

Now it is a multi-million dollar business.

The sisters said parenthood is not the same as it would have been if Jack had survived.

Katie wouldn’t have had another baby so quickly.

‘I tried to stop the pain. When I look at her, it’s complicated. I feel like I can’t say I’m grateful she’s here because that would mean I’m grateful for what happened. “If he was here, she wouldn’t be here,” she said.

Sophie was the first baby she dared to hold after Jack died – because she blamed herself for his death and assumed it was something she had done or some kind of curse.

She said she also had to work on not being a helicopter mom.

“There is a fear that something bad will happen to her,” she said.

For help coping with the loss of a baby or unborn child, please contact Sands.