Last year I shared a post about the history of Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month in October. If you haven’t yet had the chance to read it, I really hope you will take the time to do so today. Read it here.
Today, October 15th, specifically is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day. On this day, there is a “Wave of Light” sent around the world in remembrance of our precious angels. I encourage you to participate even if you haven’t experienced a loss yourself because it is a wonderful way to support a family that has to let them know that you, too, remember their angel baby (or babies). You see, no matter how much time goes by we don’t forget. We can’t forget our babies. The pain may lessen a little, but we will always remember our precious babies and look forward to the day we will see them again – or in many cases we will finally get to meet them.
We are still unpacking boxes, and I felt so blessed that one of the very first boxes I happened to unpack were the candles for our angel babies. They are nothing elaborate. They are just simple candles with the dates our angel babies went to heaven written on them. In fact, I only made them last year. Prior to that I just lit any candle, and that’s OK, too! This was just something simple I chose to do because I wanted something more personal.
Here were the candles lit last year.
I will be lighting our candles at 7pm Central Time (our time zone). Please join us for the Wave of Light in whatever time zone you are in! Please feel free to comment and share your stories. You can read my story about our angel babies.
For more information on October 15th and the Wave of Light I recommend visiting the Official Site of Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day.
October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month
October is big “awareness month” for a lot of things here in the US – Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Down Syndrome Awareness Month, Liver Awareness Month, National Spina Bifida Awareness Month, Rett Syndrome Awareness Month, SIDS Awareness Month, National Domestic Violence Awareness Month (these were the handful I was able to pull up on a list, but there may be more and many you may not know about), but one that wasn’t listed and many do not know about is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month. This was officially declared in 1988 by President Ronald Reagan. He also made a beautiful statement to go along with his declaration, which can be found on Remembering Our Babies October 15th. October 9th – 15th, specifically, is Baby Loss Awareness Week.
I think many are aware of Pregnancy and Infant loss, but how aware? Do you know how common it is? Do you know what to say to someone who has experienced a loss? Do you know that they don’t want to forget their angel baby (or babies) and pretend like nothing ever happened? Or that saying things like “it was just too soon” or “well, you should be happy you have other children (or another child)” (both are things I was told) REALLY hurts?
There are a lot of things I think people aren’t aware of when it comes to pregnancy and infant loss. I think sharing your love with those that have lost a baby or babies by participating in the Wave of Light on October 15th is a great way to show your support. Maybe you don’t understand the grief and pain (and if you haven’t experienced it I pray you never will), then this is a great way to say “I may not understand your pain directly but I love you and want to help you remember your baby (or babies).” Here is great information about Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness in general on Facebook.
To participate in the Wave of Light, you light a candle (or candles if you want to honor the memory of more than one angel baby) at 7pm in whatever time zone you are in on October 15th and leave it lit for one hour. Then the next time zone will be lighting their candle(s). This will send a wave of light around the world in remembrance of all the angel babies. If you follow me on Twitter, I will be posting reminders at the beginning of each hour! For more information be sure to visit the websites I have listed above. I do hope you will join us in the Wave of Light and that you will take the time to learn more about Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness. Chances are if you haven’t been affected you know someone who has, and they may be grieving in silence waiting for someone to acknowledge that their grief is real!
