We met Gill after I had been referred to the Early Pregnancy Unit for a scan due to blood loss. She was the first person who greeted us. She was friendly and personable and put us at ease whilst completing the initial information form. Sadly after an ultrasound, the Sonographer confirmed although there was a baby in my belly there was no longer a heartbeat she believed the baby had been 7 weeks when its heartbeat stopped. We were both incredibly upset and the Sonographer with Gill's steer kindly found us a private room to sit in. After an opportunity to gather our thoughts and comprehend what we had been told, Gill joined us.

She was incredibly empathic caring and understanding. She of course had the difficult job of giving us a lot of information whilst we were in shock which she did with warmth and clarity. She talked us through everything very slowly and went at our pace and carefully navigated an incredibly difficult conversation. We like information and she was very willing to provide us with detailed explanations to be able to inform the decisions we had to make. However, she was not pushy and kept reassuring me that this was 'nature' and had nothing to do with me running or cycling. Once we had all information we needed we made the difficult decision to have an MVA. However once again Gill did not push on the decision that we had made but told us to go home and that she would call us in a couple of hours giving us a chance to reflect on the morning and the decisions we had made. Gill called as promised that afternoon and I confirmed it was still our wish to have an MVA and she booked the appointment. Giving me information on what to expect in the next 48 hours and said we could contact her if we needed to.

We arrived for the MVA procedure in the Early Pregnancy Unit and met with Gill. This time we had a Tupperware box with us as we thought the miscarriage had occurred - she checked everything and once again clearly and concisely talked us through what we had collected. Gill stayed with us throughout the MVA procedure (please do not get us wrong this is an amazing team). Once the MVA had been undertaken Gill took the time carefully gauge if we wished to go through the pregnancy tissue and removed the baby to enable us to take our baby home on the day of the procedure. She also talked us through the umbilical cord and sack which I had agreed would be checked for a molar pregnancy. Gill even called me the following Monday to check how we were both doing once again her lovely calm manner gave me reassurance that everything would be okay and this was not my fault.

By agreeing to have the pregnancy tissue checked this sadly meant we needed to return to the Early Pregnancy Unit one more time. Gill called to check on how I was and inform me the pregnancy tissue had been examined and was ready to be collected. Once again Gill was friendly and asked how we all were. She was so flexible and incredibly understanding of our wish to come together to collect the pregnancy tissue.

We attended the Early Pregnancy Unit yesterday and once again Gill was busying around the calm reassuring presence in a department that no doubt welcomes numerous worried women and their partners every week. She once again slowly and carefully talked us through everything showed us the tissue we would be taking home and explained everything to us. We have gone home with two beautiful little boxes one holding our baby and Forget Me Not seeds and a candle but what we will remember most is the warmth and kindness Gill showed us both at all times. In the meantime, she recommended a good de-caffeinated tea - Yorkshire Tea we have now tested it and completely agree!!