Despite living for just seven short days, Elsie will have a profound impact on hundreds of parents thanks to her mother's determination to help other families in neonatal units.
Readers are advised this story contains distressing content.
When Kate Warhurst fell pregnant a year ago, she said it was the best news she could have wished for.
The primary school teacher said she had a "beautiful pregnancy".
"I was very healthy, I loved my tummy immensely, I miss it every day," she said.
"I would read to my tummy, sing to my tummy, I had everything ready to go from about 20 weeks onwards, my hospital bags packed and I just couldn't wait to be a mum."
Four months ago, during a routine check when she was almost 39 weeks pregnant, a midwife had concerns about Ms Warhurst's blood pressure, and she was later diagnosed with pre-eclampsia.
"So I was induced after that pretty quickly and they just said, 'This time tomorrow, you're going to have a baby in your arms'," she said.
Elsie was born the next day at 6.32am.
Ms Warhurst said Elsie had to be resuscitated at first, but she then spent the most "magical" time with her newborn.
Three days in, Ms Warhurst wasn't well.
Feeling faint and with high blood pressure, she had developed an infection from a retained placenta, so underwent surgery.
Suddenly Elsie became sick
After waking up the next morning, she said, Elsie was taken to the NICU [neonatal intensive care unit] because her colouring "didn't look right".
By lunchtime, healthcare workers were rushing Ms Warhurst in a wheelchair to the NICU.
Twenty healthcare staff were hovering over Elsie when she reached the unit.
"They do such an amazing job looking after babies in there and I just remember looking at my mum thinking, 'We were supposed to go home'."
Ms Warhurst said a neonatal doctor then gave her and her family the devastating news that Elsie would not survive, having diagnosed her with necrotising enterocolitis, a gastrointenstinal disease which causes part of the bowel tissue to die.
"I just remember screaming and trying to pull out my hair, and I've never, you know, I've never seen my dad cry, and I just remember looking at my parents, thinking, 'I don't know what I'm going to do'," she said.
"So we went back in and I said goodbye to Elsie. It was just like a sledgehammer."
Ms Warhurst described the days before Elsie became sick as "beautiful".
"I was breastfeeding, we changed nappies, we had family photos, I told her stories, she held my hand, wrapped a little finger around mine," Ms Warhurst said.
"She got to meet my special people, and I'm just so grateful every day to still have those memories."
Kate wants others to know there is help
Gripped with immense grief, Ms Warhurst remembers waking up being "so cross" that she was still alive and her daughter was not.
But Emma, a midwife from the bereavement team, and Ms Warhurst's family and friends wrapped around her in support.
"Still to this day, [Elsie] is a reason to get out of bed every single day," Ms Warhurst said.
"I thought, 'I can do this for Elsie, I can do this for my mum, my brother, my dad, but I'll do this for me too'."
Ms Warhurst said she wanted to share her story to help other parents, because losing a baby wasn't talked about enough.
"I also wanted to do something for the NICU, I just thought it's such a distressing place to be.
"You can't hold your baby, but you can reach your baby."
Elsie's Book Club collects hundreds of books for NICU
Instead of dropping off lasagne to help Ms Warhurst when she returned home, family and friends gave her children's books, knowing she wanted to do something to help other parents and babies in the NICU.
She thought of creating Elsie's Book Club, a collection of books that Ms Warhurst would donate to the Mater Mothers' NICU, so parents could read to their children while they were being cared for.
With the support of bestselling author Rebecca Sparrow on social media to raise awareness, Ms Warhurst established a partnership with Riverbend Books, which set up a catalogue of children's books that could be purchased and donated.
Since then more than 350 books have been purchased for Elsie's Book Club.
Ms Warhurst donates the books to the neonatal intensive care units at Mater Mothers' Hospital, as well as other NICUs in Brisbane and around the country.
"My story is just one story," Ms Warhurst said.
"I'm just so grateful to the community for supporting this work."
She hopes parents can take the books they read during their time in NICU home with their baby and keep them for times of reflection or birthdays.
"Or in cases like mine, you may not be able to look at it for years, months or weeks or whatever, it becomes something that you can hold on to that you did with your baby in such a horrific time," Ms Warhurst said.
