- Stillbirth Remembrance Day
In the
United States andCanada , Stillbirth Remembrance Day is aday set aside eachyear to honor and remember babies that have been stillborn. In many cases, thisdefinition is expanded to include babies lost tomiscarriage , SIDS, and complications ofpregnancy , including ectopic pregnancies, among others. In light of this latter definition, Stillbirth Remembrance Day is sometimes known as Stillbirth and Infant Loss Remembrance Day, or something similar.Official recognition of the stillborn
In recent years, there has been a lobby by parents who have lost babies to stillbirth in particular, for governors of U.S. states and
premier s of Canadianprovince s to issue official proclamations for a particular day to be Stillbirth Remembrance Day in their state or province. This is in line with similar lobbies for the so-called "Missing Angels" bills that would mandate the issuance of stillbirth certificates recognizing a stillborn baby's name and vital statistics, lending official recognition to the stillborn baby's albeit brief existence and hence ensuring that a stillborn baby is seen in the same light as her living siblings. As of September2005 , the legislatures of 28 U.S. states and three Canadian provinces had passed or were considering laws mandating such certificates, which are interestingly already available in theUnited Kingdom and otherEurope an countries. A few more U.S. states have legislated a day of remembrance of the stillborn.History of Stillbirth Remembrance Day
The idea of an annual day to remember stillborns followed perhaps the most notable stillbirth in recent years, that of
Breanna Lynn Bartlett-Stewart in September2000 . In Breanna Lynn's home state ofArkansas , widespread media coverage following her stillbirth sparked an unprecedented public awareness of the seemingly random and largely unknown killer of more than 26,000 babies each year in the United States alone. In response to public lobbying, the state legislature of Arkansas passed a law proclaiming Breanna Lynn's birthday, September 6, to be Arkansas Stillbirth Remembrance Day; the day was first observed on what would have been Breanna Lynn's first birthday, September 6, 2001. This proclamation was warmly welcomed by most Arkansans, even if they had no personal connection to a stillborn baby. On this day, the noon news in Little Rock showed motorists onInterstate 30 traveling with their lights on in memory of the stillborn.Following Arkansas' example, several other Southeastern U.S. states passed laws enacting
September 6 to be Stillbirth Remembrance Day in time for Breanna Lynn's second birthday in 2002. With each passing year, more U. S. states issued similar proclamations; on September 6,2005 , Breanna Lynn Bartlett-Stewart's fifth birthday, 39 U.S. states officially paused to remember babies lost to miscarriage, stillbirth, or infant death. The eleven other U.S. states that had not yet proclaimed September 6 as Stillbirth Remembrance Day were*
Alaska
*Connecticut
*Hawaii
*Maine
*Montana
*Nevada
*New Jersey
*New Hampshire
*New Mexico
*North Dakota
*South Dakota It should be noted that significant lobbies exist in each of these remaining states to proclaim an official day of stillbirth remembrance.
tillbirth Remembrance Day in Canada
In
2003 , thepremier s of three Canadian provinces -New Brunswick ,Quebec , andOntario - issued proclamations of the observance of September 6 as Stillbirth Remembrance Day in those provinces. In2006 ,Nova Scotia observed Stillbirth Remembrance Day for the first time. Other provinces have been slow to proclaim a day of remembrance of the stillborn; particularly in theprairie province s, this is likely because stillbirths are relatively rare, due to the low overall populations of these provinces.National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day (United States)
October 15 has been proclaimed by theUnited States Congress as NationalPregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day in the United States. Many U. S. stategovernor s have made similar proclamations in the last two years, effectively creating "two" annual days for the remembrance of infant loss. In general, October 15 is set aside by many states as a day to honor babies who were miscarried, lost as the result of pregnancy complications, or lost as the result of SIDS. In this way, the special case of a stillbirth, the cause of which is quite often unknown, is differentiated from infant losses that have more specifically understood causes.National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day (New Brunswick, Canada)
A similar national day of remembrance of infant loss has also been proclaimed in
New Brunswick , Canada. Other Canadian provinces, however, have yet to make such a proclamation.External links
* [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:H.+Con.+Res.+222: The July 27, 2005 Congressional proclamation of October 15 as National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day] .
* [http://www.eastsussex.gov.uk/community/registration/registeradeath/stillbirth/default.htm Protocol to be followed in registering a stillbirth and obtaining a stillbirth certificate in East Sussex County, UK] .
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