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Mother trolled for having a zombie-themed first birthday photoshoot for her son reveals the heartbreaking tale behind the pictures.

Amy Louise, from Brisbane, was slammed after her son was pictured in a series of gruesome photographs feasting on a bloody ‘brains’ cake.

What the trolls didn’t know about was the heartbreaking tale behind the pictures.

After giving birth in October 2015, her newborn was immediately whisked away by doctors after Phoenix didn’t have a heartbeat.

‘From the time the doctors told me my placenta had detached and there was no heartbeat, to the time they cut him out was such a whirlwind of emotion,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.

‘I remember feeling terrified but still hopeful. Even though they had said “get her down to theatre right now the baby has no heartbeat” I thought, this kind of stuff happens all the time.

‘But when they took him out and there was no cry, my heart just sank. It wasn’t a sad feeling, it was anger.’

‘I was almost upset at the doctors for wasting time trying to revive him, because I thought they were getting our hopes up for nothing and in my mind I was already so numb to the whole situation I just wanted them to stop.

‘I could hear them reviving him “one and two and three and breathe” over and over again, time was ticking by and everyone was getting more and more discouraged.

‘He was lifeless and there was nothing we could do. When the doctor sat next to me, I just said “he’s gone isn’t he? He’s dead”.

As the mother was having a blood transfusion, she overheard a nurse cried out: ‘He’s come back!’

‘It was the longest and most awful 13 minutes of my life,’ she recalled.

Baby Phoenix proved to be a little fighter when he was ‘brought back’ to life on Halloween on October 31.

Celebrating his first birthday, the mother said she thought the zombie-themed cake smash for Phoenix was well suited following the ordeal.

brain cake

‘What better than a zombie-themed cake smash for the tiny baby boy who was pronounced dead and then miraculously came to life on Halloween,’ she said.

Amy was shocked when she was removed from mums Facebook groups after her ‘obscene and offensive’ images were not well received when she shared them on social media.

‘I knew it would happen but the extent of it really shocked me,’ she said.

‘I got told I was a bad mother, that I was going to damage his mental health, that I would make him sick eating that cake off the dirt.

‘I got called disgusting, morbid and offensive to mothers who had lost their babies. I was accused of making fun or making light of tragedy and being an insensitive person.

‘I was told I shouldn’t joke about such horrible things and one woman even said: ‘I wish you had have lost your son because then maybe you would have known how this feels.

‘I was then removed from two mothers groups for posting these “inappropriate and gruesome” pictures. It shocked me how savage they were after what we had been through.’

Amy has hit back at trolls, saying fellow mothers shouldn’t be so quick to judge.

‘I think trolls need to learn that their opinions don’t matter and they shouldn’t waste their energy writing their thoughts on everything they don’t like,’ Amy said.

‘Nobody cares if you’re outraged just learn to scroll past it. The world is so wrapped in cotton these days, you can’t sneeze without some mother or person being outraged about something.

‘I’d like these “perfect mothers” to take a step back and stop judging others for their choices. They don’t affect you, so shut the hell up.

‘Blowing someone else’s candle out doesn’t make yours shine any brighter. As the old saying goes: “If you don’t have anything nice to say, say nothing at all.’

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Image via Instagram

  • Oh look go for it. At least she is taking the time to give her child a birthday party. Please stop bitching people

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  • Refuse to go on social media because of these sort of trolls – and why do you have to be ‘out there’ in the first place?

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  • It’s not something I would do but, then again, there’s a lot of things I wouldn’t do that others would. I wonder if she had a daughter and she had a butterfly emerging from a cocoon would there be people complaining. Just get over it peoples. Okay you wouldn’t do it but I bet there’s lots of things you do that others wouldn’t. Just do what you want Amy and forget about others. If they don’t like it they can just delete it. Life’s too short to worry about what others think

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  • All the poor diddums triggered and outraged by something that has NOTHING to do with them.
    Don’t like it -scroll on by. Not that hard.
    Love this. Took my son to a zombie walk when he was 12 months, now 3. Was he traumatised? of course not don’t be bloody stupid. He loved the attention and knows it’s all make believe.
    We celebrate Halloween and Day of the Dead. He is not fazed by much of it, but still has the fears of a normal 3 year old.

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  • She obviously likes to cause a stir as her hashtags in the original post indicate. Personally, not to my taste but in the end everyone parents how they see fit. I just think it’s a little graphic for kids – I mean, it’s not really for him is it?

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  • A lovely story about how he was revived but I still wouldn’t do a zombie themed party and cake for such a young child. But it’s her choice.

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  • Personally it would not be a choice for me

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  • I feel for her but I still wouldn’t do a theme like that for a child so young. It is a little creepy, but to each their own. I still wouldn’t be saying the things the trolls were saying.

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  • I get where she is coming from and I feel sorry the family had to go through such a distressing ordeal however I think another theme would have been more appropriate still.

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  • Not my kind of cake or scene. I understand how cathartic this may have been and what it meant to this family, but perhaps it didn’t then need to be shared online if she knew the backlash.

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  • I understand where this mum is coming from and baking these cakes might have helped her giving this traumatic experience a place.
    Personally I’m not concerned about eating dirt at all. My youngest has Down syndrome and eats dirt all the time. She even has eaten bat poo, smears and eats her own pee, dead flies and what more, lol.

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  • What a creative Mum, and I’m sure not the first child to eat a bit of dirt. As others have said I thought it was a red velvet cake, didn’t notice that it was supposedly a brain. I believe that people who are offended or squeamish should simply scroll past the story, it’s not THAT hard to do, one doesn’t have to read everything on the net, just as one can pick and choose what they read or watch in newspapers and TV.

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  • I get this. My child died technically 3 times in the NICU. I wish i had have thought of this. Support her completely

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  • Yay Amy! Living outside the cotton wool wrapped pretend perfrct world! Celebrate an important and emotional milestone.

    My son was born with a hole in his heart and had open heart surgery aged 9 months old. So first 9 months of his life I was a wreck rather than someone enjoying his growth. We celebrate March 30th every year (operation day) as a celebration of life and achievement. Yes we’ve not gone zombie, but we have shared rather graphic images of our baby hooked up to tubes and wired while still in PICU. Not once have they been banned, insulted or attacked. Why? They are morbid, scary and triggers for bad memories… Why not judged poorly while this obvious cheeky celebration of life is troll bomed?

    Social media society need to wake up, take a chill pill and scroll on by if it’s not their “thing”. We should be creating an online village of support and encouragement, not a village seeking its next witch to burn. ????

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  • My kids were born in the days when children played in the dirt and made mud pies and tried a mouthful of dirt from time to time.Nearly all kids did.I thought the cake was nothing more than a red velvet cake.I don’t see a zombie child.I see a very much alive and happy little boy having fun smashing up a cake and a mother who is grateful he is here to record this happy event.I make birthday cakes and youngsters have requested mummies and monsters and yes…even brain and eyeball cakes.God bless you little Phoenix.May you have a long and happy life!!

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  • Wow. I saw the photo before reading the story as far as i see it, if that’s what the parents what to do that’s up to them, everyone has different ways of celebrating things and this is no different. If anything good on them for doing it, what other 2 year old would get a brains cake?

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  • Visuals of brains does make my stomach turn. It’s an instinctive reaction. So the scene of such a bloodied brain mess does make me feel sick. Not so politically incorrect as just makes me squemish. Some choice though. Out of all the choices and reasons behind it for a theme. Gross.

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  • Unfortunately on social network sites this photo and story would of course receive all sorts of feedback.


    • As long as they all had fun what harm is done?

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  • She didn’t really need to post it on mother’s group pages knowing it would bring out the trolls. But it is a very clever idea. I doubt it will have caused long term damage. And if there is a toddler out there who hasn’t eaten dirt I’d be surprised.

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  • My last two babies were both revived after being born prematurely, I would have done something similar if I was smart enough to think of it myself!

    Reply

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