A mother whose baby daughter died just hours after being born has said she hopes her new book can be a resource for other parents.
Áine Healy-Collins has penned Hollie's Journey, which has a special significance for herself and her family.
Hollie was born on Christmas Day in 2022, but she passed away in hospital 15 hours later.
Ms Healy-Collins told Newstalk Breakfast she wasn't sure what to do afterwards.
"You go into a fight, flight and freeze mode I suppose to cope with your grief," she said.
"We had a three-year-old boy at home, Kai, he's now four, so we really had to navitage where we were going to go with this grief.
"We came home and our first initial thought was, 'How will we speak to Kai about this? How will we navigate his mind?'
"To speak about something so difficult, the fear is how to relay that to your child or children that are at home.
"They have these innocent, beautiful minds and they think a lot differently to what we think."
'It helped me on that journey'
Ms Healy-Collins said in the weeks after Hollie's death, unbeknownst to herself, she wrote a draft of what is now Hollie's Journey.
"Thinking about what Kai was thinking, what would he say to Hollie and what would Hollie say back to him," she said.
"[It was] to bring them to a space of comfort really, and that's where it stemmed from".
Kai with a copy of Hollie's JourneyMs Healy-Collins said the book became her diary and helped her on the way.
"It really kind of helped me on that journey in my depths of grief and missing Hollie," she said.
"You have six months maternity leave with no baby, so you're clutching to anything and everything.
"I'm an English teacher as well... and I suppose being a Mom and an English teacher together it just kind of came.
"I still say I don't know where it came from; I personally think it came from Kai and Hollie to help me.
"But also the legacy [of] Hollie, in her short life, that she can give back to people that are suffering like her family.
"I cocooned for 13 months and I think Hollie's Journey and the resource it can be to parents has pushed me out of that cocoon of hiding and grief to give back to the organisations and people that have helped us in the last 13 months," she added.
Hollie's Journey is on pre-sale in O'Mahony's Bookshop for €10; €5 of which will go to the Féileacáin charity and the other €5 will go to the Children's Grief Centre in Limerick.
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Anyone affected by issues raised in this article can contact the stillbirth and neonatal death support charity Féileacáin on (085)-249-6464 or (028)-51301
