A mother whose Facebook pictures of her tiny miscarried baby went viral says she hopes that her simple action helps change hearts and minds about abortion.
Sharran Sutherland of Fair Grove, Mo., posted a series of pictures on her Facebook page last April showing the four-inch-long baby, who was 14 weeks along when his heart stopped beating. Sutherland miscarried at 15 weeks gestation.
The post received 23,000 shares, 11,000 likes and more than 7,000 comments. British newspapers carried stories about the pictures last fall.
She named the boy āMiran.ā
āI just couldnāt believe how perfect everything was on him,ā Sutherland, a mother of 11, told the Mirror newspaper āHis ears, his tongue, his gums, his lips. I couldnāt believe it.
āYou have those baby books that show you diagrams of a baby in utero but he didnāt look like anything I had ever seen,ā she added. āI 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. Itās really hard to describe.ā
The pictures show little Miran laying on a cloth and near a card that reads āItās a Boy!ā The card says he weighed 26 grams and was born April 23, 2018. That is the day Sutherland miscarried. Despite being only 14 weeks along in development, Miran had hands, arms, feet, legs and a face.
On her Facebook page, Sutherland said she was āsharing my pictures of my beautiful little boy with everyoneā because āpeople are killing their babies everyday as smallā as Miran, ābelieving that it isnāt a babyā and is just a āblob of tissue.ā
āThat just isn’t the case,ā she added.
Babies at 18 days, she said, can have a beating heart.
āI 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,ā she wrote.
British newspapers spread her story even further — and women began contacting her.
āI suddenly started to get private messages and one just made me so incredibly happy,ā she wrote on her Facebook paper following publication of one of the articles. āA lady reached out to tell me she is 14 weeks along, has other children but she and husband werenāt prepared for another. After reading the article she told me she cancelled her appointment that was scheduled for tomorrow.ā
Another woman wrote on Sutherlandās Facebook page, āThis post saved mine too, and talking with you made me feel so much better about having my little girl too. You have an amazing family.ā
Miranās life, Sutherland wrote, had a purpose āeven if it was short lived.ā
āI know I will one day get to meet him again and I know he is with our Lord and Savior Jesus,ā Sutherland wrote.