Mother reveals heartbreak as terminal baby is born too small to donate organs

'Those 96 minutes she was alive were the best of our lives'

The couple hoped to donate their unborn baby’s organs to those in need of life saving transplants (

A selfless mother who carried her terminal baby to full term so her organs could be donated has revealed she was born too small to save lives.

Speaking on This Morning in December last year, Hayley Martin, 30, from East Yorkshire, said she was given the devastating news that her baby daughter, Ava-Joy, would die during labour or just moments after birth, at her 20-week scan.

But, instead of taking the termination that was offered to them by doctors, she and husband Scott, 30, decided to take the pregnancy to full term.

Diagnosed with bilateral renal agenesis, a condition in which the kidneys do not form, the parents made the decision to donate their unborn baby’s organs to those in need of life saving transplants.

However, the couple have today revealed that when Ava-Joy was born on January 8, she was too small for her organs to be retrieved.

Despite the family’s heartbreaking news, they insist that the time spent with their newborn daughter was something they will never forget.

Surviving for 96 minutes after her birth, Ava-Joy battled against the odds and is said to have cried, wriggled and gripped her mother’s finger, creating moments her parents will treasure forever.

(ITV/This Morning)

“When we found out she was just 55g underweight – the same weight as a packet of crisps – we were devastated,” the grieving mother told Mail Online.

“It wasn’t the only reason we carried on with the pregnancy but it would have been so great for her to have been able to help another child. I plan to donate a kidney in her honour.”

While the couple knew they would not have long with their little girl, Hayley says that nothing can prepare you for the loss of your own child.

“Every day you expect to wake up from your worst nightmare and you don’t,” she said.

“But those 96 minutes that she was alive were the best of our lives. I would do it all again.

“I wouldn’t give up those 96 minutes for anything in this world. Ava has touched more lives in those minutes than I would in 96 years.”