And yet compared to many other serious illness such as skin cancer, ovarian cancer and even SIDS (895 babies die every year of SIDS – down 85% in the past 10 years thanks to scientific research which has revealed the risk factors and a massive push to education new parents), there is no ad campaign for Stillbirth and shockingly little money made available for research.
This week on Mamamia on Sky News, we looked at the issue of stillbirth in a touching, revealing and very candid way.
On our panel is Kristina Keneally, former premier of NSW and patron of the Stillbirth Foundation. Kristina lost her second child, a daughter called Caroline who was stillborn several years ago. And our special guest in this segement is Emma McLeod who also lost a daughter, Olivia, after a seemingly normal pregnancy in 2002.
Back then, there was no organisation to support Emma, or her family so she started her own and it’s still going strong today. The Stillbirth Foundation is the only one of its kind, supporting women and families who have experienced a loss that society still struggles to define.
Mia chats to Emma tonight about love, loss and her life’s work.
The full episode is now live right here (the stillbirth segment begins at 16mins 11 secs):
During the show we showed a humbling series of photos of stillborn children, photographed with their families so they had something to remember them by. Some photos are of the families and their other children. These are those photos.
The photos are taken by Heartfelt, which describes itself as:
What amazing work they do. Please consider donating to Heartfelt or to the Stillbirth Foundation. They need all of our support to continue the incredible job of giving comfort and support to those going through tremendous pain.
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