A federal Labor senator has broken down while opening up about the tragic heartbreak of losing her newborn baby girl.
This week marks the 20th anniversary since Kristina Keneally’s daughter Caroline was stillborn, a tragedy she says changed her family forever.
Two decades have passed but time hasn’t healed the devastating pain the former NSW Premier still feels as she recalled the loss of her second child in a raw and emotional interview.
This is one of the few photos Kristina Keneally and her husband Ben have of daughter Caroline
‘We had a funeral for her and buried her. And those few days when you’re in the hospital, and you get to hold your child, but you know that you’ll never see her again,’ the mum-of-three told Nine News.
‘The thing that I struggle to come to grips with, is how going into pregnancy, I didn’t understand how often still birth occurs in Australia.’
Senator Keneally also opened about the devastating tragedy in a heartfelt opinion piece written for the Sydney Morning Herald on Wednesday.
‘Her birth and death cleaved my life into before and after. The trauma, grief, sorrow and pain debilitated me for a time. Our family has never been the same. There is always a daughter, a sister, a granddaughter who is missing,’ she wrote.
‘In the 20 years since I gave birth to Caroline, I have gone through guilt and grief, sorrow and depression, and often anger.’
Kristina Keneally showed rare emotion when discussing the loss of her baby girl Caroline
Ms Keneally and her husband Ben’s eldest son Daniel was just 14-months-old at the time.
The couple later welcomed a third child Brendan.
Around 2,200 Australian babies are stillborn each year, a figure that’s higher than the national road toll.
In 40 per cent of cases, the cause of death is unknown, according to Stillbirth Foundation Australia.
Around 44,000 Australian babies have been stillborn since Caroline’s death.
This week marks the 20th anniversary since the Labor Senator lost her daughter to stillbirth
‘For 20 years, Australia has paid almost no attention to this private tragedy that occurs on a significant scale,’ Ms Keneally wrote.
‘We did not speak of this personal grief that thousands of Australian families experience each year. We did not ask why it happens, or if we could prevent it.’
Today, Senator Keneally’s long campaign fighting for improved stillbirth research and education continues.
She led the push into a bi-partisan Senate inquiry into stillbirths last year, where she described stillbirth as an overlooked and under-investigated public health issue.
‘Six babies a day in Australia are stillborn. That is six lives lost every day in Australia,’ Senator Keneally told parliament.
‘Surely, we as a nation can do better than this.’
Kristina Keneally was the first woman to become NSW Premier in 2009. She’s pictured with her sons Brendan and Daniel
It led to the first set of national recommendations being handed down earlier this year, which included more prevention, investigation and support.
The report called for a National Stillbirth Action Plan with an aim to reduce the rate of stillbirths over the next three years by 20 per cent, which Ms Keneally says the federal Coalition government has yet responded to.
While federal health minister Greg Hunt has allocated $7.2 million towards to medical research and education programs to reduce stillbirths, Senator Keneally says more need to be done.
‘We can’t wait another 20 years. We simply can’t,’ she said.
The former NSW Premier, pictured with her sons and husband says she’s a mother of thre