Women’s Health Clinic commemorating Pregnancy and Loss Awareness month with bereavement conference

October is Pregnancy and Loss Awareness Month, and Women’s Health Clinic is working to bring together impacted families so they can find guidance and support.

“Really, my whole world was just flipped upside down at that point and it was such an isolating time in my life. A time of grief and loss and a time where I felt really alone and didn’t have people that understood this,” said Alysha Angus.

“She was the most beautiful little babe, a tiny little girl with red hair and people said she looked just like me. It was a beautiful day meeting her and spending those few memories that we had with her.”

Angus is a mother of three, soon to be four. Her daughter, Ellie Rose, was stillborn at 39 weeks of gestation.

“It’s an experience like nothing else. Like to really go through a full pregnancy with all those hopes and dreams of what your family’s going to look like, what your future’s going to look like, and then all of that being taken away from you,” said Angus.

Angus says the loss was very isolating, and those around her weren’t able to understand what she was going through. She says she found healing with support groups, including programs at Women’s Health Clinic.

“You didn’t have to explain yourself and hear all these platitudes from family members that really just didn’t get it. There was this sense of community and not feeling like you were alone in this.”

Erin Bockstall is the manager of Family & Communications programs at Women’s Health Clinic. It’s hosting its first conference dedicated to perinatal bereavement, called Connecting with Compassion.

“It’s an expression of community where a lot of people have come together to share gifts and share that love and compassion that they feel for others, to try to really take away that isolation and loneliness that people can feel during a reproductive loss,” said Bockstall.

“There’s no one right way to feel, and there’s no one right way to respond or need or seek support.”

Angus says she’s looking forward to the event, where she feels she’ll be able to laugh and cry and speak about Ellie Rose, and her new pregnancy.

“I really feel like, death and loss really brought me new life and new purpose,” said Angus.

“There’s a lot of anxieties there and the what-ifs and trying not to jump too much ahead of myself … these could be some of my only moments with my babe, and just being able to appreciate right now what I have in front of me and be hopeful for what the future can look like.”

Women’s Health Clinic’s conference will take place on October 21, at the Turtle Island Neighbourhood Centre.

Angus, who is one of the organizers for Connecting with Compassions, says she hopes families impacted reach out so they can find the same kind of healing support she’s found.