Acknowledging Life

I believe the miracle of LIFE begins at conception. Anybody who argues life isn't given to a foetus hasn't been touch by pregnancy loss, miscarriage, stillbirth or infant lost. October 15  is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. It's a day for parents and other loved ones to acknowledge the lives of children they never meet.

Those who advocate for abortion  argue that an unborn foetus is not 'a life'. However, many of them seem to also consider at point during  the pregnancy when abortion is morally no longer consider appropriate. Which asks the question is a foetus 'alive' at 16 weeks and 2 days and not at 16 weeks? A child or foetus begins to grow from the moment of conception. Cells being to multiply and divide immediately. 

The presence of growth advocates the presence of 'life' itself. But this is not a discussion on abortion, rather a discussing on acknowledging life, embracing life, remembering life, respecting life and grieving the loss of an unborn child or infant under the age of one. 

Most 'parents' greet the news of pregnancy with joy and expectations of what the life of there unborn child will be. Some begin looking for names and talking to their unborn child. They begin to plan and prepare for the babies arrival. The child has already become part of the families life to some extent. So when that child is lost or miscarriage so to are the plans the family had for a child. 

When a baby is lost early in a pregnancy often only its parents may be aware of the lost. But it doesn't make there grief any less real. It often makes it harder because they are unable to share and express their lost to others. The is not burial and ceremony to mark the lost and often people find it hard to find closer. 

A stillbirth on the other hand, begins the same way as any other birth. A mother still goes into labour and delivers her child on she will not hear he child cry. Unless the child dies during the birth process, parents will know there child has pass away before the baby is delivered.  

Imagine you've being planing the arrival of your child for months. Together or maybe through circumstances you're a single mum. you've created a nursery, bought future, clothes, toys, in fact everything your child will need for its first weeks of life. You have a bag packed ready to go to the hospital. Maybe you know the day and may be you don't. . . And then tragedy occurs. 

Perhaps the babies bag is still sitting in the baby's room as the doctor places the child into its mothers arms for what will be the first and last time. The child will not be coming home.  The room holds all the hopes and dreams the parents and any siblings had for their child. Imagine coming home to see the room.  Imagine planing a funereal instead of a naming ceremony.

Or may be your child spent a few days of months in hospital but the with same tragic circumstances occur, coming home to a baby's room that is no longer needed.

Regardless of when and how the children loss their lives. The parents are left to grieve under circumstances many of us can not understand. Pregnancy and Infant Lost Day gives these families the sense of legitimacy they deserve as well as us all 'acknowledging lives' that existed  and with their lost, so to hopes and dreams their parents had for them died. .