Description of Need

The Pregnancy & Infant Loss Support Centre (PILSC) is a rapidly growing registered charity meeting an urgent need for specialized bereavement mental health support for families who have experienced infertility, miscarriage, Termination for Medical Reasons (TFMR), abortion, stillbirth, neonatal death, and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Our programming continues to see a 75% increase in demand year after year.

The Pregnancy & Infant Loss Support Centre plays a crucial role in addressing the mental health crisis in Canada. Each person affected by loss is at risk for long-term mental health challenges. Our programming addresses the needs of bereaved families in unique and innovative ways:

• Actively supporting all members of a family (partners, grandparents, siblings) who have been touched by loss.
• Providing support across all stages of the loss journey (initial grief, trying to conceive, pregnant after loss, and parenting post-loss).
• Being the only loss-serving organization in Canada that proactively addresses the impacts of pregnancy and neonatal loss on people within vulnerable sectors such as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Colour) and the LGBTQ2S+ community.
• Ensuring all programming is driven by bereaved parents who have personally experienced the challenges of pregnancy and infant loss.
• The Pregnancy & Infant Loss Support Centre understands the difficulty for families who have experienced the trauma of pregnancy and infant loss to access mental health support.

We are requesting funding to continue offering free, remote, specialized  support to families impacted by miscarriage, stillbirth, neonatal death, or SIDS, who may otherwise be unable to access or afford these services. Funds will be used to build capacity and meet the increased demand for specialized community bereavement support.

Our Story – Why We Exist

Karen & Jeff’s Story

Karen was due to welcome her first child last year. She and her partner, Jeff had carefully designed their baby boy’s nursery, had installed the car seat, and had washed and organized all of his clothes. Karen, Jeff, their family and friends were all excited to finally meet the little boy that had been growing inside Karen and their hearts for the last 39 weeks.

Two days before Karen’s estimated due date she woke up to an awful feeling. She could not feel her son’s movement inside of her. He was always active in the morning so Karen went into the hospital “just to be safe”. When the doctor arrived, Karen and Jeff heard the words no parents should ever hear,

“there is no heartbeat. Your baby has died”.

After 15 hours of labor, Karen birthed their baby boy, Adam silently into the world.

The weeks that followed Adam’s birth and death were some of the darkest the couple had faced. Karen’s breast milk came in, her body was ready to feed a baby that did not come home. She felt empty. She isolated herself in fear of being asked unanswerable questions about her baby who had passed away. Flashbacks to Adam’s traumatic birth and leaving the hospital without her baby kept her awake at night. During the day she stayed home, not knowing what her purpose, in a world without her son, was. Jeff was growing angry as he questioned his Faith—what God would take their son before he had a chance to live? Jeff had to go back to work, where there was little to no acknowledgement of the trauma he and Karen had experienced.

Both Karen and Jeff were experiencing debilitating anxiety and their mental health plummeted. They began to experience tension in their relationship, not knowing how to process their trauma, grief, and shame without blaming themselves or each other.

Neither Karen nor Jeff wanted to go back to a hospital setting to receive support—the thought of returning to a hospital was far too painful .A few weeks later, the couple were referred to the Pregnancy & Infant Loss Support Centre and because the Centre was not at a hospital they both felt at ease to access it.

They attended a peer support group for parents who do not have living children. In the safety of the Centre both Karen and Jeff were met with empathy, love, acknowledgment and community support. They were able to speak Adam’s name and hear from others who had experienced similar fates. They also accessed several counseling sessions at the Centre together. The sessions helped the couple build their relationship with each other as well as their own individual resiliency. Karen was able to attend a friend’s baby shower recently, something that only months earlier had given her panic attacks thinking about.

Both Karen and Jeff have continued to access the Centre. Their relationship has thrived and with the help of community, specialized groups and counseling, the couple feel like they have developed healthier coping strategies for their parenting journey ahead.

Sadly, Karen and Jeff’s story is not unique. The number of individuals and families that are impacted by pregnancy and infant loss is vast. Research estimates that 40% of all conceptions result in loss.

The mental health impacts are deep.

Researchers at Imperial College London and KU Leuven in Belgium found that 29% of birthing people who experienced a pregnancy loss, had PTSD symptoms one month after that loss. Additionally, 24% of these individuals had anxiety, and 11% had moderate to severe depression one month after pregnancy loss.
Comparatively, of the people who delivered healthy babies, 13% reported having moderate to severe anxiety month after giving birth.
The study also found the individuals who had PTSD, depression, or anxiety after pregnancy loss said their symptoms continued for long periods of time, ranging from three months to nine months after the loss. One study (CNN, 2010) reported: compared with couples who had successful pregnancies, those who had a miscarriage were 22 % more likely to break up, and those who experienced a stillbirth were 40% more likely to do so.

Our Impact – What We Do

What We Do Differently:

• We actively acknowledge that grief affects all the members of a family (such as the birthing person, partners, grandparents and siblings) who have been touched by loss. Our peer support programming is open to any family member (including grandparents and siblings) who have been impacted, not only the birthing person and their partners.
• Our center provides ongoing, long term support across all stages of the loss journey. We provide support that addresses the unique needs of our community at every stage (initial grief, trying to conceive, pregnant again, and parenting post loss)
• We provide inclusive care within pregnancy and neonatal loss communities. Our organization is the only one in Canada that is proactively addressing the impacts that pregnancy and neonatal loss has on people who identify within diverse and marginalized communities.
• Our organization was founded by bereaved parents who help drive the the focus of what programming gaps still remain for the community. We offer our support in a warm and non-clinical setting.

Through Choice, We Empower

The Pregnancy & Infant Loss Support Centre is a Registered Charity in Calgary whose mission is to connect bereaved families to community engagement events, a chatline, peer support programming, coaching/counseling, comfort boxes, and educational opportunities. We offer choice in support offerings so that people can choose what path is right for them.

Our Impact:

“What the PILSC team is doing is nothing short of breathtaking. Their kindness is incredible as is their strength and determination to bring change. There are angels who walk among us” 

“I felt understood, validated and supported.  I am grateful that everyone shared their stories and chatted tonight, I am thankful to have met you all”

“My husband and I started meeting with Aditi in July after the loss of our daughter Lyla.  After such a devastating loss, we really weren’t sure how we could get through it. Aditi has been amazing in coaching us through our grief and helping us learn things about ourselves that we didn’t know were there.  She has shown us that it takes strength to grieve, and taught us ways to honour our daughter along the way. Our meetings with Aditi have not only helped us individually, but have really strengthened our marriage as well.  We look forward to continuing our sessions as we build our family” ~M & J

• We are seeking a larger space to keep up with our steadfast growth
• Since our foundation in late 2018 we have seen a 300% increase to access of services
• We have a team of dedicated volunteers
• We have developed strong partnerships with other organizations such as Calgary Immigrant Women’s Association, Kensington Clinic, Peter Lougheed Women’s Health Clinic, Canada Diagnostics Centres

Our Programs – How We Do It

We have 5 programming streams:

Professional 1:1 Support
Mission: Provide personalized professional mental health support through all stages of the journey while acknowledging trauma and mental health as an individual journey.

Talk therapy/Counseling: grief counseling, trying to conceive, pregnant again, parenting after loss

Somatic Therapies: moving stored trauma through the body

Pregnancy & Infant Loss Support Chatline

Mission: Connect individuals nationwide who are experiencing acute crisis to immediate, and anonymous peer support through text and voicechat.

Reduces barriers for families in rural areas who are further from support

Group Support
Mission: Connect people to community in specific stages of the journey

Group Peer Support: We offer 7 specialized peer support groups:

• Grieving without living children
• Grieving with living children
• Pregnant after loss
• Trying to conceive after loss
• Difficult Decisions
• Partners in loss
• Parent and Baby

Education: Community at Large
Mission: to bring awareness, advocate and further the conversations about the trauma and mental health impacts of pregnancy and infant loss to the community at large (support people, service providers, and employers)

Community Engagement

Mission: To provide the diverse loss community—including those representing various ethnic and cultural backgrounds, abilities, faiths, sexual orientations, and gender identities—with access to grief support, while addressing the intersections of their trauma through community engagement. Our engagement efforts also encompass our comfort box programming.

Our approach to community engagement involves:

• Hosting events that bring together individuals for shared experiences and support.
• Fostering social connections within communities to build natural support networks.
• Organizing retreats that offer a space for healing and reflection.
• Our comfort box programming
• Collaborating with other agencies to enhance our reach and address needs effectively.

By actively engaging with the community in these ways, we aim to ensure that all individuals have access to the specialized support they need during their grief journey.

Our Requests – What You Can Do

As a registered charity, we rely solely on the generous donations of our community partners, grants and volunteered time to run our programming.

Your contributions will ensure the comprehensive and critical care we provide will continue at no cost to families in need.

Other ways you can Contribute

• Volunteers for Social Media, community event and fundraising
• Attend our fundraisers
• Monthly Donations

Your generosity helps reduce the isolation, stigma and mental health challenges individuals and families experience after pregnancy or infant loss. By donating, you are helping to provide options that support individual healing, so people can heal in their own way, and on their own terms.