Healing Together – Winnipeg Free Press

Lee’s experience was similar. Her son Roy died two years ago, hours before a scheduled cesarean section. The hospital staff were caring and attentive, but bereavement counseling services specializing in miscarriage were almost impossible to find in Winnipeg.

It was also difficult to broach the subject with friends and loved ones.

“Sometimes you feel like you have to keep it to yourself, like a dirty little secret, because you don’t want to burden other people,” Lee says. “Most people I know have never had babies. They can be kind and wonderful, but they don’t understand this specific pain.

After suffering from isolation, Lee and Flatt met at the Dragonfly support program’s inaugural group therapy session. The Women’s Health Clinic (WHC) program provides counseling and peer support services to individuals affected by miscarriage, termination of pregnancy or infant death.

“It was so nice to share with people who actually knew what you were going through,” Lee says. “It took away that feeling of loneliness.”

The Dragonfly program received provincial funding and launched in 2021, after years of lobbying HFC to try to fill the gap that exists for these types of mental health services.

“One in four people experience pregnancy or child loss in their lifetime,” explains Sarah Morand, Dragonfly advisor. “There is a huge need because it is an experience that is often stigmatized, not talked about or silenced… especially in cases of early miscarriage. »

According to Morand, this stigma stems from living in a society where death and reproduction have always been treated as equally taboo topics of discussion.

The death of a child is also referred to as “disordered grief,” she says, which makes it more traumatic or upsetting than the death of someone who has lived a full life.

Flatt thinks it’s harder for outsiders to understand what can often be an invisible struggle.

“The ore symbolizes strength, as well as the precious metals found in it, so it was pretty perfect,” Lee says of the name.

The group provides peer support through biweekly virtual meetings, group discussion, and in-person activities. Parents can add their children’s names to the group’s online “love wall” and sign up to receive an annual birthday card commemorating their child’s date of birth or death.

“It’s an incredible feeling; it’s everything you would want to have at your disposal,” says Flatt. “It took such a raw, traumatic and sad experience and allowed us to feel these huge pockets of joy.”

October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month. On Saturday, ORE is hosting its first community conference in collaboration with the Women’s Health Clinic.

Connecting with Compassion is a full-day activity, featuring lectures from subject matter experts, group art projects, movement workshops, and Indigenous teachings. The goal is to build community and provide bereaved people with a safe space to explore different ways of coping with their grief.

“Time doesn’t erase what happened,” Flatt said. “(We’re) trying to get the community to say, ‘Hey, this happens…let’s talk about it and heal from it together.’

Currently, Dragonfly remains the only official counseling program dedicated to pregnancy and infant loss in Manitoba. Although staff provide training to health care providers across the province to better deal with this type of loss, demand for services remains high.

Peer support groups, like ORE, are an important part of the puzzle.

“It addresses the need to create a space built by the community for the community,” says Morand, who will lead a journaling workshop on Saturday.

Lee hopes the Connecting with Compassion conference will become an annual event.