Alyssa Youn went to her routine appointment one afternoon in September. She was pregnant for the first time, and her pregnancy was considered high-risk due to physical conditions such as cerebral palsy and type 2 diabetes, among others.

When she had the ultrasound, Scarlett was 19 weeks along and perfectly healthy. Her parents couldn’t wait to hold her in their arms.

Alyssa and Justin met when they were both teenagers, six years ago, and they knew immediately that they wanted to be together forever. Talking about marriage came naturally to them, because despite their youth, they knew exactly what they wanted.

When the pregnancy test came back positive, they were thrilled and overjoyed. Everything seemed to be going according to plan… until that September afternoon when Alyssa felt unusual pain. She felt exhausted during the ultrasound.

She attributed her tiredness to the usual discomforts and aches of pregnancy, but it gradually intensified until it became a stomachache with severe pelvic pain.

A day passed, and she could no longer bear the pain, so she was taken to the emergency room because she was experiencing light bleeding. However, the doctors examined her and sent them home. The couple left relieved, and everything seemed to return to normal, even though every doctor they spoke to seemed concerned.

Something inside her felt wrong. The next day they arrived at the hospital, and after an examination, the obstetrician told them that she had an incompetent cervix, a condition that occurs in one out of every 100 pregnancies: her body was trying to go into early labor.

They could perform a procedure to stitch and keep the cervix closed, but in her case, it wouldn’t make much difference; besides, it could prevent the pregnancy from continuing safely.

Although little Scarlett showed all the signs of a normally developing baby, she was growing rapidly, and Alyssa’s cervix was dilating more and more, even with the magnesium they were giving her.

“I felt like I had failed my husband and our daughter. All I could say was, ‘I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.’ I must have repeated it a dozen times. We both cried and prayed, and we called our family and close friends to tell them the news and that it would be a good idea for them to come to the hospital. We were surrounded by so much love and so many prayers that day.”

At just 20 weeks and 5 days old, little Scarlett was too young to survive (the earliest known premature baby was 21 weeks and 5 days). Alyssa and Justin knew their daughter wouldn’t make it through delivery, so they gathered all their loved ones in the delivery room to welcome and say goodbye to their little girl… though they still hoped for a miracle.

“As I held her in my arms, she struggled to breathe. I told her I was sorry and that I loved her. I told her it was okay to rest. Watching our baby pass away and knowing there’s nothing you can do to save her is a heartbreaking feeling. You feel powerless.”

Everyone gathered around and hugged her one by one. Scarlett stayed with them for only two hours, but during that time she received all the love of those who had eagerly awaited her arrival. Her brief time in the world was captured by her grandmother in beautiful photographs.

Alyssa found a powerful purpose in her daughter: to encourage other mothers to talk about pregnancy loss, stillbirth, and cervical insufficiency in order to raise awareness among future mothers, so that fewer and fewer babies face this outcome.