Wanting to do something in honor of Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month or Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day this October? Here are some ideas for things you can do.
Participate in a Walk to Remember or other awareness event to help raise funds for nonprofit groups or support research into miscarriage causes. Share Pregnancy and Infant Loss Support has a list of some events around the country, as does the official website for Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day.
Write a letter to the editor of your local paper or submit an opinion column discussing the experience of pregnancy loss and the need for greater awareness.
Offer to speak at a local university or hospital in order to increase awareness of the emotional experience of pregnancy loss among current healthcare professionals or healthcare professionals who are in training.
Diplomatically correct people who spread misinformation, such as anyone who suggests that miscarriage is the mother's fault or that if you had not done (fill in the blank), that you would not have miscarried. Giving these people the correct information can hopefully prevent them from spreading the incorrect information in the future.
Start a support group in your region if there is not one currently available. Share has tips for how you can go about this. If you do start a group, placing flyers in local obstetrical offices or giving them to patient care coordinators at local hospitals can be a good way to spread the word about your group.
Launch your own nonprofit organization to serve a unmet need in your area for families grieving pregnancy loss. For example, one couple began a charity to offer free burial plots to parents who suffered an unexpected stillbirth after they discovered the plots could potentially be unaffordable to some families (read their story in the support forums on this site).
