A Georgia mother who lost her daughter to stillbirth after what she described as a healthy, low-risk pregnancy is now helping other grieving families through a nonprofit that provides birth-weighted stuffed animals.
Bayleigh Garland Blackston said her pregnancy with her daughter, Lilibet, had been routine.
“All of our appointments were great,” she explained.
That changed the day her water broke.
“When we got to the hospital in triage, they were searching and searching for the heartbeat and they couldn’t find it,” she said.
Lilibet was stillborn last year.
“Losing a baby is a special type of grief,” Blackston said. “Your arms literally ache to hold your baby.”
In the days after the loss, Blackston’s mother made her a bunny weighted to match Lilibet’s birth weight. She said the impact was immediate.
“Feeling the weight of her again was… it was so therapeutic,” she explained.
“For months I slept with her on my chest so I could feel it and I hold my bunny and I think of my baby and my bunny means the world to me,” she added.
After sharing her story on TikTok, Blackston said she began receiving messages from other parents who had experienced similar losses. That response inspired her to create Lilibear, a nonprofit that provides birth-weighted stuffed animals to families who have experienced stillbirth or infant loss.
“This is my way and the only way I know how to parent her and pour my love out into her is to do that for others,” she said. “And I think starting the nonprofit and helping other moms, it helps me because I am keeping Lilibet’s memory alive.”
Blackston said each bear is made by hand and with intention.
“As I’m making them, I have a picture of Lilibet on my desk. I think of Lilibet, my daughter, and then I’m also thinking of their baby,” she explained.
Families can request a bear or support the nonprofit through its Amazon wish list. More information is available at https://www.lilibear.org/.
