Support

miscarriage, adverse prenatal diagnosis, stillbirth, and infant loss

“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” -Psalm 34:18

Experiencing a miscarriage or stillbirth is a devastating and often isolating experience. A Mom’s Peace is an apostolate for mothers of miscarried and stillborn souls, assisting with immediate burial or cremation service and spiritual and emotional support.

Inova Fairfax Hospital Perinatal Concerns Program
Contact: Kelly Gallo RN, (703) 776-6371. Falls Church, Virginia

Mary Washington Hospital Family Birth Place
 
Perinatal Bereavement Services
Contact: Perinatal bereavement coordinator Tammy Ruiz Ziegler RN CPLC, (540) 741-3268. (See also her video about perinatal hospice, translated into multiple languages. Fredericksburg, Virginia)

St. Mary’s Hospital 
Noah’s Children Perinatal Care, St. Mary’s Hospital. Richmond, Virginia (Diocese of Richmond)

Tepeyac Family Center 
Kristin Anderson Perinatal Hospice Program, (703) 273-9440, Fairfax, Virginia

Prenatal Partners for Life
 (long distance Catholic peer support ministry) 763-772-3868 www.prenatalpartnersforlife.org

Filumena Birth and Bereavement  mothers and families who experience miscarriage, later-term miscarriage, or stillbirth, and to educate and inform health care professionals, pregnancy help providers, and clergy so they may better serve families who experience the loss of a preborn child. www.filumenabirth.com

National Programs: www.perinatalhospice.org

In many instances of miscarriage, no bodily remains are discernable. In such cases, the Church still
has special prayers to offer for you and your baby. Parents may then want to ask their pastor about
the appropriate liturgical rites available to them (see “Rites and Commendations” for more
information).

However, in the event that remains are present, it is recommended that the remains are kept cold in
a suitable container until the day of burial. The parents may ask the doctor or hospital for the
remains if they are not offered by the medical institution. Unfortunately, some medical institutions
may not allow the remains to be given directly to the parents, but may insist on releasing the child to
a funeral home. It is important to consider any additional costs if a funeral home is involved.

Parents are encouraged to contact their pastor for arrangement of the appropriate commendation
rite and burial arrangements.

The church permits cremation as long as it is not a statement of the denial in the resurrection of the body (Catechism of the Catholic Church § 2301). Cremated remains should be treated with the same dignity as a deceased body. In other words, cremated remains should have their final resting place in a grave or columbarium.

The remains, whether or not they are cremated, should be interred in a grave or columbarium. It is strongly advised that the remains be placed in a cemetery so that the dignity of the burial site can be properly protected.

supporting someone experiencing infertility and child loss

“God in his providence has two ways of blessing marriages: one by giving them children; and the other, sometimes, because he loves them so much, by not giving them children. I don’t know which is the better blessing.” -St. Josemaria Escriva

find a parish support group

Marriage is a vocation, a call from God, and the vocation to love is in fact a vocation to the gift of self, and this is a possibility that no physical condition can prevent.” 

-His Holiness Benedict XVI
General Assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life, February 2012