Friday, May 3, 2024
In 1998, President Ronald Reagan proclaimed October Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month. This month is meant to raise awareness and honor and mourn those babies who lost their lives.
Part of Reagan’s proclamation from 1988 read, “National observance of Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month, 1988, offers us the opportunity to increase our understanding of the great tragedy involved in the deaths of unborn and newborn babies. It also enables us to consider how, as individuals and communities, we can meet the needs of bereaved parents and family members and work to prevent causes of these problems.”
Later in 2002, Robyn Bear, Lisa Brown, and Tammy Novak, who lost their own babies, wanted to create an entire day of remembrance. Through bipartisan congressional resolutions, Oct. 15 since then has marked a day of remembrance.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in 100 pregnancies will end in stillbirth in the United States, which is equivalent to 24,000 babies every year.
A stillbirth is the loss of a baby before or during delivery. Both miscarriage and stillbirth fall under pregnancy loss but differ based on when the loss occurs.
According to the Mayo Clinic, most miscarriages happen during the first trimester of pregnancy, which is the first 13 weeks. Non-Hispanic Black women and American Indian/Alaska Native women are twice as likely to experience stillbirth in comparison to Non-Hispanic Whites, Asian or Pacific Islanders, and Hispanics.
“Miscarriages are very common and it’s not uncommon for a woman to even have two miscarriages in her reproductive life and rarely does it have anything to do with women but rather the genetic makeup of the baby at the time. These women need to know it’s not their fault but lots of women do. It is never a punishment, it’s just life,” Kim Irwin, who serves as the executive director at the Brazos Pregnancy Center in Granbury said. “We deal with this quite often. It seems to be that all the pregnancy centers are seeing a lot of miscarriages and this last year we saw more than the average we usually see. Hopefully some studies will be done about it. This is a traumatic time for a woman, and we always want to be there for them.”
The center offers information on dealing with loss, comfort, gifts to help with grieving, prayer and referrals for counseling services.
Some ways to get involved include lighting a candle at 7 p.m. on Oct. 15 as part of the International Wave of Light, participating in moments of silence, sharing stories if you have experienced loss and offering compassion or a listening ear for those who have undergone a loss.
For those who have suffered a loss it is important to reach out to those closest to you for support, seek counseling, and allow plenty of time to grieve and remember according to the American Pregnancy Association. They also note that men and women grieve differently.
Parents or other family members who have experienced the loss of a baby between conception and the first month of life can receive a free March of Dimes bereavement kit by contacting the Fulfillment Center at 1-800-367-6630 or at bkit@marchofdimes.org
For more information on the Brazos Pregnancy Center, call or text 817-579-1233, visit the website at brazospregnancycenter.com or email bpc@brazospregnancyclinic.com.
The center is open Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
