Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month

Ms SAVVAS (Newland) (15:13): Today, I rise to acknowledge Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month, the month of October, when for a whole month we pay tribute to the lives of little ones gone too soon, whether that be from early pregnancy loss, miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, chemical pregnancy, stillbirth, neonatal birth, SIDS or all other causes of pregnancy and infant loss.

Each year, 110,000 Australians have a miscarriage, 2,200 babies are born still and another 600 lose their babies in the first 28 days of life, and 15 October is the day to specifically mourn those babies held only in the hearts of their families. At 7pm on that date, in what we call the Wave of Light, people all over the world lit a candle for babies lost.

Pregnancy and infant loss is something that touches everyone in some way, yet for many there is still stigma and shame in talking about it. This year, SANDS and Red Nose are encouraging people to break the silence and speak up about their loss. They are using #standingsilent on social media and encouraging families, particularly those parents who have been bereaved, to talk about their babies.

I cannot begin to name the number of my own family and friends who have been impacted by pregnancy and infant loss, nor those who continue along an unspeakably painful and emotionally draining journey to have families of their own. I am sure that each and every person in this place has a story of their own and, for me, it is important to play my role in reducing that stigma by talking about my experiences with loss.

I have already told the story in this place of how my own family was rocked by infant loss when my brother Benjamin was born at 24 weeks' gestation in the year 2000. He was born awake, but passed soon after. He is but one example of a loss that rocked a family and I have seen firsthand the way that the pain of pregnancy and infant loss reverberates throughout a family for generations. As teenagers, two of my closest friends had a baby born still and that, too, had a long-lasting impact on the lives of their friends and family, myself included as a self-proclaimed surrogate aunty.

On 15 October 2012, the very same day that we remember babies lost around the world, my dear friends lost their own angel, Ivy Sarah. This week would have marked Ivy's 10^th birthday and, as we do most years, myself and Ivy's mum, Sophie, spoke and imagined Ivy at 10. Sophie sees her as loud and confident, being raised with her cousins like sisters. On Ivy's seventh birthday, we did the same thing. Sophie said she saw Ivy as thoughtful and grounded for her age and likely braver than her mum. She says she is certain that she would not be scared of spiders. Today, I acknowledge, on behalf of her mum, Sophie, Ivy Sarah Jordan-Glapa in the house.

In a different story, some 20 years after the birth of my little brother, another dear friend had a baby at 24 weeks' gestation. He not only survived but today is thriving. I acknowledge today as well as babies lost, the SCBU, PICU and NICU staff, particularly at our Women's and Children's Hospital, who play such a fundamental role in caring for premmie and sick babies—some who just a few years ago, like my brother, would not have had the same opportunities to grow and thrive. They are our miracle babies.

On 24 October, the Walk for Prems, hosted by Life's Little Treasures Foundation and Baby Bunting, was supposed to be held at Peace Park here in Adelaide with the remembrance ceremony for premmie babies lost. The event has been postponed but so far has raised over $493,000 around the country to help families whose sick or premature babies are born unexpectedly. The journey to have safe and healthy babies for some is incredibly difficult and time-consuming. I do hope for those still on their journey, that they are blessed with rainbow babies of their own very soon.

Each year my mum acknowledges our loss on Facebook with the same poem for my brother and I share a line from it with the house today. It begins, 'I carry your heart with me (I carry it in my heart)', so today I pay tribute to the babies carried only in our hearts.