An Instagram account dedicated to raising awareness of miscarriage shared an image given to them by a mother who had lost her baby between the ninth and tenth week of pregnancy (seven to eight weeks past fertilization). The remarkable photo was taken one year ago when this mother lost her precious baby girl. The baby’s mother shared the image because she wanted “to honor this child and every child who won’t grow up…” and @miscarriage.stories posted the beautiful photo.

“This is my child, Elsie […],” she wrote. “She was born in Colorado on Nov 27th at 5:30am. [Three] days after my grandmas funeral. [Six] days after my birthday. [Seven] days after my grandma passed. The next day was thanksgiving. I flew home that night.”

She wrote that she was about 12 weeks along in her pregnancy, but she learned that her baby girl had died two to three weeks earlier. After a “full strong labor and delivery” Elsie “was born perfectly in her waters, en caul, with the placenta surrounding. This photo was taken after that was peeled away.”

Miscarriage — the spontaneous loss of a preborn child before 20 weeks — occurs in up to 20% of all known pregnancies. In recent years, women have been more open about their miscarriages, breaking the stigma that surrounds it and highlighting the humanity and worth of their preborn children.

According to The Endowment for Human Development, by seven weeks post-fertilization, a preborn child has brain activity and a heart rate that peaks at 170 beats per minute. The heart at this age has four chambers. The baby is just 2.2 cm from crown to heel but can kick her legs and move her hands and arms. She can also hiccup. She is — as she has been since her first moment of creation — a human being. By nine weeks, she can drink fluid, suck her thumb, sigh, stretch, open her mouth, and move her tongue. She is sensitive to light touch.