Eight years may have passed since the death of her unborn daughter, but this time of year is always painful for Sarah Milosevic.
The Brisbane mother was travelling in a car with her partner and children in 2014 when a drunk driver slammed into the vehicle, causing the death of her baby, Sophie, two days later.
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The driver was under the influence of drugs and alcohol, and escaped with a $950 fine.
Since then, Ms Milosevic has worked tirelessly to change a system that does not recognise unborn baby deaths in car accidents as a human death.
"They talk about babies not taking a breath and therefore are not considered a fetus or a human being," she said.
"But holding her after she was delivered and knowing that I will never hear her cry and that there's never been any justice, that is devastating."
Ms Milosevic wants babies of any gestation to be legally recognised as human beings, to protect mothers and their children against violent acts.
"We want traffic law reforms around dangerous driving to have a minimum jail term of 10 years for the death of an unborn. But the person must have done something dangerous to be punished," she said.
Ms Milosevic said she and her family had not had a chance to grieve because nothing had changed to prevent others from suffering the same way.
"I don't want to see another story where a baby has died in a mother's uterus, and they don't count," she said.
"I keep fighting for this law reform, but there is just no time to rest or stop and breathe — I don't know what keeps me going. It's the one thing I can do for her as her mother."
In 2014, Ms Milosevic delivered a petition to protect unborn babies with 130,000 signatures to the then LNP attorney-general.
"As a parent, you have to do everything in your power to honour your children," she said.
"All babies born past 20 weeks gestation need to have a birth certificate, a death certificate and a funeral. So why is it that only in a court of law does a baby have no rights to be counted?"
Ms Milosevic said progress towards law reform had been slow and there was still no confirmed time frame.
"We are still trying to make advances to the law reform. But they feel slow and open-ended as far as the reviews go," she said.
"It's heartbreaking because every time we feel we are getting closer or that somebody is listening and somebody is doing something, there's another election. Then somebody new comes in and we have to start everything again. We have to win them over and explain why this important."
Law change pace to ensure 'no unintended consequences'
Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman said the government was yet to determine a position on changing the laws in this regard.
"I certainly understand the family's frustration that this has taken many years, but we are well into our way consulting on these issues," Ms Fentiman said.
"We have been consulting on changes including recognising the unborn child's name on an indictment which, for a grieving family, gives them some recognition in law of their loss."
Ms Fentiman said it was a complex area of law requiring consultation with the broader community.
"We want to make sure there are no unintended consequences.
"We do not want any of these changes to impact a women's right to choose. We decriminalised abortion in this state, and this is something the government is proud of."
But Opposition Leader David Crisafulli argues this area of law was not complicated.
"No loss of life should ever happen and be in vain. No legislation is so complex that it takes seven years," he said.
"The laws must be changed, and we intend to run a campaign to ensure more families do not continue to fall through cracks in which the government delays enacting legislative changes that are needed," he said.
'If we band together we might show that these babies matter'
Ms Milosevic is calling on Queensland mothers in similar circumstances to come forward.
"I think if we all band together that we might show that these babies matter and that we need this law reform," she said.
"Once you lose your child, you lose your future — you lose your hope. It feels like this weight pushing you down and no matter how hard you try to get up, you can't escape it."
She believes updating the law would create a legacy for Sophie.
"Changing this law does nothing for myself or my family. But what it does is create a legacy for Sophie and protecting other families from the same struggle," Ms Milosevic said.
"She could have been anybody. She could have been anything in this world and discovered the cure the cancer.
"She can't make a legacy for herself, so that's up to her parents to do so."
