A REMEMBRANCE SERVICE will be held in Dublin this afternoon for anybody who has been affected by the death of a baby.
It’s being held by Féileacáin- a not for profit organisation that offers support to anyone affected by the death of a baby during pregnancy or shortly after.
The primary focus of the charity is to support those bereaved from a stillbirth or neonatal death.
It was set up by a group of friends who found it very hard to get support after losing their own babies.
Marie Cregan is one of those women, she told TheJournal.ie, “When your baby dies very early, a lot of the time you’re the only one who knew it.”
The charity offers support meetings and a support helpline and provides memory boxes through hospitals.
The box contains items to help a family losing a baby; such as an information leaflet, a hand knitted blanket, a kit to take the baby’s hand and footprints and two teddies.
Cregan said, “A lot of the time parents will keep one teddy and have the other one with their baby and just before the burial swap them over so they have the teddy the baby kept close.
I recently met a man who took a really tattered teddy out of his pocket, he said to me that he always keeps it with him and it’s in his pocket everywhere he goes.
Five hundred boxes were given out last year.
She added, “the box advises parents to take a lock of hair, simple things that they might not think of at the time but that later become the most precious possession.”
The remembrance service is open to anybody affected, and people can just turn up.
Over 200 butterflies will be released in the friary gardens nearby, and the Dublin Gospel Choir will be performing.
It’s on at St Mary of the Angels Church, Church St. Dublin 7 at 3pm today.
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