On Wednesday 4th September 2019, Our Missing Peace attended ‘Child Bereavement: Breaking the Silence’ hosted by the wonderful Mary Fee MSP.
Hosted in the Garden Lobby at Scottish Parliament, the second annual child bereavement event intended to raise awareness and help break the silence still ever surrounding child loss, whilst allowing parents the chance to speak with ministers and MSPs about the impact that bereavement care and support (or lack of) can have following the death of a child.
Mary Fee opened the event with a lovely speech, followed by SiMBA’s Kirsteen Watson – who spoke about her beautiful baby Eoin so movingly and with such grace.
It was an honour to be able to attend this event, particularly because just one month later on the 7th October 2019, the same MSP, Mary Fee, lodged a motion in Parliament to formally acknowledge Baby Loss Awareness Week in the Scottish Government.
Our Missing Peace and the word ‘Vilomah’ were included in this motion and will be forever recognized in the records of Scottish Parliament. Anybody who is familiar with our charity, what we stand for and the awareness we are wanting to raise will understand how much this means to us and what an amazing honour it is.
There has been a shift over the last year or so within the ‘baby loss community’ that has seen more and more people wanted to break the echo chamber … for people outside of these four walls to be made aware; to encourage those who haven’t been through such devastation to engage with those who have, to talk about it, raise awareness about it, to understand how important support is and how to provide it. You can often feel that it’s an impossible task, then moments like this happen and prove to us time and time again that we can make a difference. That we are making a difference.
MOTION S5M-19295
That the Parliament notes from that 9 to 15 October 2019 is Baby Loss Awareness Week; acknowledges that this is facilitated each year by the Miscarriage Association and gives people the opportunity to talk about baby loss and encourage society to break the silence of child bereavement; applauds the small charities across Scotland, such as SiMBA, Our Missing Peace and Sean’s Trust, which provide support to parents who have experienced the death of their child through miscarriage, stillbirth or neo-natal death; commends these charities for their tailored support through parent groups, online support and counselling; encourages the promotion of the word, “Vilomah”, which is a Sanskrit term for a parent whose child has died and means “against natural order”, and encourages all Members to take part in the Wave of Light at 7pm on 15 October by lighting a candle in memory of babies who have died too soon.
Supported by: Miles Briggs,
Kenneth Gibson, Mark Griffin, Finlay Carson, Stewart Stevenson, Pauline
McNeill, Richard Lyle, Edward Mountain, Alexander Stewart, Rona Mackay, Stuart
McMillan, Monica Lennon, Liam Kerr, Alex Rowley, Bill Kidd, Annie Wells, Sandra
White, Jeremy Balfour, Jackie Baillie, Fulton MacGregor, Gil Paterson, Alexander
Burnett, Bob Doris, Jenny Gilruth, Clare Adamson, Tom Arthur, John Finnie, Neil
Bibby, Alex Cole-Hamilton, Ruth Maguire, Colin Smyth
