CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Friday is Pregnacy & Infant Loss Remembrance Day, part of October's Pregnacy & Infant Loss Awareness Month.
Thousands of families in the U.S. grieve the loss of a baby every year. An estimated one in four pregnancies end in miscarriage, and each year about 24,000 babies are stillborn in the United States.
Three Corpus Christi ‘Angel Moms’ spoke to KRIS 6 News to highlight the lack of resources available for the emotional toll brought by those losses.
They want to make sure that speaking about the deaths of their babies is no longer taboo. So, they share their stories and what helps them get through a life of permanent grieving.
One of the mothers is Lea Trevino, a registered nurse at the Driscoll Children's Hospital neonatal intensive care unit. Trevino also chairs the neonatal intensive care unit's bereavement board.
"I lost my only child as well," Trevino said. "So (we) kind of wanted to change the world after we lost our baby,:
At Driscoll Children's Hospital, the neonatal intensive care unit team typically experiences 30-35 infant or pregnancy deaths a year.
“I think it’s certainly important to talk about it, to talk about infant loss and pregnancy loss, to try to chip away at some of the shame and stigma," said Anne Russey, a licensed Texas counselor. "It can feel like something we really don’t give enough room to talk about because it can make people, especially people who haven’t lived through it, feel uncomfortable.”
Russey hopes resources for Angel Parents continue to grow. She says, however, online support services outnumber the ones available in-person. Several options can be found on her website.
For those wishing to share the pain of infant loss in the Coastal Bend, events are being organized for Friday night including:
- A candlelight vigil at 7 p.m. at 4039 Ayers St.
- 10th annual Child Loss Awareness Butterfly Release, 6 p.m. by the pier at Lake Findley located one mile north of Alice off FM 3376.
