Our hospital is working to establish a bereavement program for infant loss. Shelly Potter and I attended a bereavement training conference presented by Gundersen Lutheran Hospital in La Crosse, WI. The training was helpful in providing us with policies and procedures to have in place, and ideas about how to best serve families in their grief. Practically, the conference was great. Emotionally, it was heart-wrenching. Many of those at the conference were medical professionals who wanted to know how to reach out and communicate with patients when their world falls apart through miscarriage, stillbirth, or infant death. Some of us, were also parents who have walked this treacherous path of carrying and then burying a child of our own. The story of baby Eliot, who was born with Trisomy 18 was particularly touching to me. The way God used this little child for his glory is truly amazing. So many people would have chosen to terminate a pregnancy if they were told that their child wouldn't live long after birth, or would be stillborn. Believing that not meeting that child at all would some how make it easier. This family viewed their child's life as a gift, no matter how short it was on earth. It is a beautiful story, and I hope you will take time to watch it.
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