A time for congratulations, and celebrations. You are expecting a baby. How exciting. All is going well. Your final checkup is in just a few days and your delivery date is anytime now. You feel the movement and you feel assured that all is well. Then it stops nothing, no movement, no heartbeat. This can't be but, it is.

This was something our family went through in 1997. Alot of emotions, a lot of mixed feelings. A lot of what do we do, what do you say?

The best you can do is show your support to the person and their immediate family who is going through this. Just be there to listen. Be supportive, encourage them to go to a support group and to talk to others who have experienced this.

This would be the second child for my sister-in-law and brother-in-law and new baby brother to be for my niece. There would be seven years difference in age but, she was a proud to be sister.

There was no rhyme or reason to why this happened but it did. He was a full term baby boy who just two days before he was delivered as a stillborn, was moving around in the womb preparing for his big debut.

This was such a hard time for all of us. Why? What happened? A lot of what ifs. You just never know what is going to happen, or when it will happen. One thing is for sure you are never prepared for something like this to happen. A time to celebrate and bring home a new baby a time to be happy. Instead we attended a funeral. One of an infant. One of a baby boy. In a tiny white casket, he never got to say hello, we never got to say hello.

We all had to grieve over this, but the important thing was to be there for my sister-in-law and brother-in-law who didn't quite know how to cope with all that they were feeling. Who would? We all just had to lend an ear and be there. Support them in anyway that was beneficial for their healing.

Learn more about this author, Jadey Bayless.
Click here to send author comments or questions.

---

Add your voice

Know something about How to offer support to those who face the death of a child?
We want to hear your view. Write now!