October 15 is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day, a day to recognize the babies who were deeply loved and the parents and families who continue to carry their loss.

Pregnancy and infant loss can include miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, molar pregnancy, stillbirth, medical termination, neonatal death, and other experiences of losing a baby during pregnancy or infancy. While these experiences are more common than many people realize, the grief that follows can still feel profoundly isolating.

Pregnancy Loss Is Grief

The significance of a loss is not determined by the number of weeks a pregnancy lasted or how much time a parent had with their baby. For some, grief begins with the loss of a baby they had already imagined a future with. It may also include the loss of anticipated milestones, a sense of safety in pregnancy, trust in one's body, or the future someone thought they were moving toward.

There is also no single "right" response to pregnancy or infant loss. Grief may include sadness, anger, guilt, numbness, anxiety, relief, jealousy, confusion, or a combination of emotions that change over time.

When the World Moves On Before You Do

One of the difficult realities of pregnancy and infant loss is that other people's lives often return to normal while the grieving person's world may still feel profoundly changed.

Due dates, anniversaries, pregnancy announcements, baby showers, holidays, or subsequent pregnancies can bring grief back to the surface. This does not necessarily mean someone is moving backward; grief is not a linear process, and meaningful dates and experiences can continue to carry emotional weight.

Support does not require finding the perfect words, sometimes it means simply being willing to acknowledge:
Your baby existed. Your loss mattered. Your grief is allowed to take up space.

Pregnancy and Infant Loss Therapy in Barrie and Ontario

At VOX Mental Health, our Registered Social Workers provide grief and bereavement therapy, including support for pregnancy, perinatal, postpartum, and infant loss. Therapy can offer a confidential space to process grief, trauma, changes within a relationship, anxiety about future pregnancies, or the complicated emotions that can accompany reproductive loss.

VOX Mental Health offers in-person therapy in Barrie, Ontario, and virtual psychotherapy throughout Ontario. On Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day, we remember the babies who could not stay, and make space for the people who continue to carry them with them.