In a personal essay, Helen Richardson, a senior assistant headteacher from the UK, describes the loss of her daughter Amelie, who died aged six weeks after being born with a serious congenital condition. Richardson had endured five miscarriages and spent around £20,000 on IVF before finally becoming a mother, and she wants to highlight the little-discussed experience of parents whose "rainbow baby" survives pregnancy and birth only to die shortly afterwards.

Richardson and her husband Tim began trying for a baby in 2020, suffering four miscarriages between 2020 and 2022 with no identifiable cause, before turning to IVF in 2023 with support from the charity Tommy's. Amelie was born in May 2025 but spent her short life in hospital undergoing major surgery before dying at six weeks old; the couple were later able to bring her home briefly to create memories together as a family. A year on, Richardson says she wants to be a voice for parents left without the child they finally had, after a narrative that typically frames rainbow babies only as happy endings.