A LLYN mum whose baby boy was still born is calling for scans to be introduced at the later stage in pregnancy to prevent babies dying before birth.

Elen Hughes from Aberdaron is mum to Elis, Tomos and Denio but her three sons had another brother – Danial – who died when she was 37 and a half weeks pregnant in 2012.

The 32-year-old is now calling for more research into the reasons why babies continue to die before they are born, as a study carried out at Great Ormond Street Hospital show that only one in four parents will get an answer to why their baby was stillborn.

She said: “My pregnancy with Danial was completely normal, and was classed as being very low risk. Every scan was fine, and the hospital staff were quite keen for me to have a homebirth.

"But one Friday night I just didn’t feel right – nothing major, just not feeling myself. I woke up on the Saturday morning and felt that the baby wasn’t moving as much as usual.”

Elen went straight to Ysbyty Gwynedd and was immediately put on a machine to monitor Danial’s heart.

Describing the heartbreaking moment she found out her son had passed away, she said: “Everything seemed fine. I was kept on the monitor for four hours just to check that all was well, when all of a sudden the baby moved in an unusual way and the machine lost his heart beat.

"We thought he’d just moved too far away from the machine for his heart to be picked up, but they never found his heartbeat again, he had passed away.”

The weeks and months following Danial’s death were very hard for Elen, and she says she is very grateful to the SANDS Stillbirth and Neo-natal Death charity for supporting her during those difficult times.

Since her tragic loss she has raised over £4,000 for the charity to raise awareness and thank them for everything they’ve done for her.

Arfon AM, Sian Gwenllian met with Elen in order to raise awareness of the support available in Gwynedd following baby loss.