As many of you know, my husband and I have had two pregnancy
losses. Our first loss was on January 7, 2011, when we discovered that my baby
no longer had a heart beat and I miscarried. My second was on October 30, 2013,
when we lost our daughter, Ziva Rae, due to an incompetent cervix and she died
shortly after birth. In the months after Ziva’s loss, I searched for support
and I came across a group on Facebook which is filled with women with similar stories
to mine. I have three organizations which are close to my heart and I wish to
bring awareness to their efforts in the hope that it can be brought to those
who can benefit from their services.
October 15th is the National Pregnancy and Infant
Loss Remembrance Day. The day of remembrance is to bring awareness to pregnancy
losses (miscarriages and stillbirths) and infant losses (SIDS and neo-natal
deaths). Every year on October 15th at 7 pm, candle lighting vigils
are held around the world known as the International Wave of Light. The
campaign for this day of remembrance was started in 2002 with Robyn Bear, Lisa
Brown and Tammy Novak. House Concurrent Resolution 222 was passed on September
28, 2006 supporting the goals and ideals of a day of remembrance. Together,
these women formed Remembering Our Babies, a foundation which brings awareness
and education to communities and promotes openness, understanding and
compassion for a family’s grief and offering ways to remember their babies. Rememberingourbabies.net
is a memorial keepsake boutique where parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles or
anyone who wishes to honor these babies can purchase items from custom jewelry
to t-shirts. The money that is raised funds their efforts to bring awareness and support for those who are in need.
Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep is a non-profit organization
which provides professional photography for families who have suffered a loss
through stillbirth or eminent neo-natal death. It was co-founded by Cheryl
Haggard and Sandy Puc after Sandy Puc took photographs of Cheryl’s son after
his stillbirth. The group’s name is
taken from the classic children’s bedtime prayer. A group of 11,000 volunteers have created
a network of photographers who have come to hospitals in order to take
photographs for a family. These images are a great step in the family’s healing
process and honoring the memory of each child. The network of photographers are
available across the United States as well as 40 countries worldwide. These pictures become precious treasures for the families.
Molly Bears is another organization which is close to my
heart. It was founded by Bridget Crews after she lost her daughter, Molly
Christine, at 34 weeks on May 30, 2010. The organization makes weighted bears
and support for grieving families who had suffered an infant loss. The bears
are weighted to match the weight of the child (up to 12 months of age) and when
the baby was miscarried an approximate weight is used for the gestational age.
Since their operation began in August 2010, Molly Bears currently has orders
for 7,000 bears (which there is an average 9-12 month wait time) and has made
over 5,500 bears to grieving families. These bears are made 100% by volunteers who sew and carefully weigh each bear. I look forward to the day when I can get one for my angel.
I was never aware of these resources for pregnancy loss
until I lost my own. There is so much information that is provided by these
organizations for support and services which are designed to help with the
grieving process. I wish that I had them when I first lost my angels. My goal is that the information can be spread in the hopes that one day someone may hear of these wonderful organizations and get the support that they need and know they do not suffer alone. If you need these services or know someone who does, I highly
recommend visiting these sites. These organizations were created to support,
counsel and heal mothers in the future because the services weren’t available
for them and they didn’t want it to happen again.
If you would like
more information or donate to these worthy causes, please visit their websites:
Now I Lay Me Down to
Me www.nowilaymedowntosleep.org
Molly Bears www.MollyBears.com
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