Brave mum shares images of her dead son to prove he’s a ‘real baby’ after ‘doctors called him medical waste’

A brave mum has shared heartbreaking photos of her dead son to prove he is a ‘real baby’ after doctors ‘called him medical waste’.

Sharran Sutherland, 40, was amazed by how ‘perfect’ son Miran was despite him dying 14 weeks into her pregnancy.

She kept him in a fridge for a week before tenderly burying him in a flowerpot under a hydrangea bush.

Images taken by mum-of-11 Sharran, show the four-inch-long little boy, who weighed just 26 grams, with fully-formed face, hands, feet and even fingernails.

As Miran could not legally be clbadified as a baby until 20 weeks old, Sharran and her husband Michael Sutherland, 35, were allowed to take him home to bury him how they wished.

Despite the heartbreaking loss of her baby, Sharran claims she is ‘grateful’ she got the chance to give birth, see and hold Miran before she said goodbye.

But the mum claims she was never allowed the chance to properly grieve for her son because Miran was never legally a child – only a fetus.

Now Sharran is bravely sharing the images of her son to show other women considering abortion just how fully formed babies can be.

Sharran, from Fair Grove, Missouri, US, said: “Looking at him, holding him in my hand, looking at how perfectly formed he was, I was amazed.

WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGES BELOW

“I just couldn’t believe how perfect everything was on him. His ears, his tongue, his gums, his lips. I couldn’t believe it.

“You have those baby books that show you diagrams of a baby in utero but he didn’t look like anything I had ever seen. I was just filled with such awe and amazement with him.

“He just needed to continue maturing and growing and developing. It blew me away. It was an incredible feeling. It’s really hard to describe.

“Even though he had died, I was given that chance to hold my baby still. That longing was fulfilled. I was grateful for that. I couldn’t fathom it.

“This world has done a great job at dehumanising unborn babies. The abortion industry has done a great job at that but it doesn’t just affect women who are getting abortions.

“It affects women who have lost their babies too – because the world doesn’t view their children as babies.

“So when a woman loses her unborn child she’s not able to grieve in the same way as a woman who gave birth to a baby that dies after being born.

“When a woman loses her unborn baby it’s almost like you don’t speak of it. A woman goes through it alone and I believe that’s because other people don’t recognise it as a human, as a baby.

“This isn’t just about a woman grieving over her baby and not being able to give her baby life, it’s about not recognising that this is a baby. It’s just a tiny baby.”

Sharran’s doctors urged her to have a dilation and curettage (D&C) procedure to cut the baby out of her womb after a sonogram revealed Miran’s heart had stopped beating.

But Sharran refused because she ‘didn’t want her baby to come out in pieces’ and instead opted to be induced and give birth naturally on April 23, 173 days before his due date.

She spent days studying Miran and taking his handprints before the stay-at-home mum, Michael and their children buried him in a plant box in their garden after the idea was suggested by a funeral director.

Sharran said: “The doctor said we can either dispose of it as medical waste, or you can call a funeral home.

“I was so angered by her calling my baby a ‘fetus’. I couldn’t believe she would insinuate he was medical waste. I was so angered by that.

“But I also felt like a funeral seemed extreme. I didn’t know what to do and I was faced with this decision.

“My husband and I discussed burying him in a planter box filled with hydrangeas that would grow each year and come back to remind us of him, and we thought it was a great idea.

“When I got home [from the hospital] I made saline solution and I put him in it and I put him in my refrigerator.

“I know that sounds morbid to some people but I didn’t want him to decompose or smell. I didn’t know what else to do. We weren’t ready to bury him yet.

“We had him almost a week. In that time I was able to get his handprints, take his pictures, hold him, grieve to an extent. But I had that time with him which I think really helped a lot.

“When it came time to bury him, that was hard. I wanted to dig him back up.

“I wanted to just keep him in my fridge. I didn’t care if people thought it was morbid – I wanted to keep him there forever.”

Sharron shared intimate photos of her baby boy online, showing his face and tiny fingers and toes.

The post went viral shortly after Miran’s due date on October 12 with more than 36,000 likes, shares and comments.

In her post, Sharran said: “How can a person deny not only my little boy’s humanity but all other babies as young as him and kill them and in such a horrific way?

“I am hoping that by sharing these pictures of my precious little boy that it might just make one person who is contemplating abortion decide to let their child live.”

Since sharing the post, Sharron claims a friend was inspired not to have an abortion.

Sharran said: “When it came to October 12th, which was his due date, I decided to write about him on that date.

“I think because I shared what he really looked like, and because I shared my view [on abortion], I know some people say I’ve turned this into a political thing which wasn’t my view or hope.

“I hoped that if he could help someone who is contemplating and thinking about abortion, if a woman can see and have all the information in front of her, then she can make a better choice.

“Even if she still goes through with it then at least she knew. I wasn’t trying to shame women who have had them.

“[A friend] was going to get an abortion because she and the father were young and he wanted her to abort.

“But she had seen my pictures of Miran, and when she did she couldn’t go through with it. She couldn’t kill her child.

“I couldn’t believe that he had touched somebody. I had hoped for it but if it was someone that close, it was amazing.

“I thought, if that’s all Miran’s life was meant to do, then so be it.”