October 15th Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness day
Recently, well over the last year, an amazing couple that I was lucky and unlucky enough to meet decided to join the movement in having October 15 be declared in Canada as Pregnancy and Infant loss awareness day so they created a website: http://www.october15.ca/ After losing their sons Marlon and Tobias, they felt there must be more, more recognition, more acknowledgment, more support for all the losses that society chooses to ignore or pretend did not happen.
The goal is to have October 15 proclaimed in and across Canada as National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness day.
Last year Jens(wife Kerstin) the creator(s) of this site, through all their hard work, had BC place lit up at 7pm to recognize all the silent suffering parents go through after a miscarriage, stillbirth or infant death. The CN tower in Toronto also lit up a beautiful blue last October 15 in acknowledgement.
Through their new site http://www.october15.ca/ as well as finding lots of resources for those going through a loss or to help a grieving parent, there is also a page designated to proclamations and how to have it done in your city.
I recently attempted to have Langley City and Township follow the leads of the cities of Richmond, Vancouver, Campbell River and Estevan who have had October 15th proclaimed, as have the provinces of Saskatchewan and British Columbia. The North West Territories and Manitoba have gone one step further having declared October 15th as Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day (Ontario, Winnipeg are in process while Victoria, Saanich and Edmonton have been submitted).
After many emails back and forth with the mayor’s staff at Langley city council and Langley Township council I was told that neither of the Langley’s do proclamations but my request was read at the township meeting on September 19th 2014, as well as, the request to Langley city council will be read aloud on the televised October 6th council meeting on Shaw cable 4. I suppose them reading these requests aloud brings some awareness to this subject, this day; it is not a win nor a loss. I do hope one day with the help of others this day will be recognized in Canada because in as many ways as possible we need to address the stigma that follows a miscarriage, stillbirth or infant loss, the awkwardness needs to be redirected into honest conversations so these parents do not feel so alone or isolated, so that the general public understands it is not a shameful secret that is not to be spoken or asked about and most importantly that it happens far more frequently than people realize and their needs to be more research into why. Please visit and share this site http://www.october15.ca/ Thank you.
Dealing With My Grief 