| Miscarriage and Stillbirth Grief: | Page 16 |
| I am 70 year young man married to Ann, beloved wife of 49 years. I have
3 children alive and one son in Heaven. I have 10 grandchildren who bring me great joy. I live in a beautiful seaside suburb, 35 minutes drive south of Adelaide, the Capital City of South Australia. |
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| In 1967 we suffered the anguish of a Stillborn baby son and
experienced that lack of support and lack of help that was the custom at that time. Our son
Darren was buried under the Australian Government's Hospital Burial system and we were not
given the opportunity to attend his burial.
We know the cemetery where he is buried, but no record was ever kept of his gravesite. This added to our grief pain and delayed our Grief Recovery for quite some time. When I joined the Funeral company and discovered that babies were still being buried under this system [which was meant to help grieving parents], I realised how unhelpful this system was. The Funeral Company personnel, the Hospital staff, the Cemetery Staff and the Gravediggers were all unhappy about being involved in the burial of babies in unmarked graves without the Parents being present and without a service of any kind. I approached the Company General Manager and he kindly allowed me to put into place a Perinatal Baby Burial program to replace the Hospital system. This new program allows the parents, their family and friends to attend a Funeral service for their baby in cemtery sites especially set aside where they can place name plaques at the head of the gravesite. My wife and I are Co-Founders of SANDS (SA) Inc. [the Stillbirth And Neonatal Death Support Group] of South Australia. This Support Group has been developed to help Bereaved Parents cope with the death of their baby. |
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