PREGNANCY AND INFANT LOSS CEREMONIES & DOULA SUPPORT

 
 

After-Death Ceremony & Ritual Guidance

My role as a Ceremony & Ritual Practice Guide is to educate, empower and be of service to families to exercise their innate right to care for their own baby in the minutes, hours and days after death. This is a free service for families experiencing pregnancy or infant loss in a hospital setting or home birth.

Please contact me at 250-919-2289 (no texts please).

I can support and assist you by holding space; remaining in a state of grounded neutrality as you process the emotional energy of loss whether in the hospital, home or at the funeral home.  Guidance includes:

  • Consultation sessions.  I am available to visit you at home or in the hospital & take the time you need to explore the options open to you. I am available to be on call.

  • Planning rituals or ceremonies before a medical procedure. 

  • Guiding naming ceremonies, family unity rituals, and many other grief & remembrance rituals. 

  • Guiding Bathing/purification rituals including anointing, dressing and/or shrouding.

  • Guiding rituals & ceremony to prepare you to release your baby to the hospital staff or funeral home.

Infant & Pregnancy Loss Doula Support

Infant and Pregnancy Loss Doula Support is available for birthing plans for loss, pre/during/post birth of an unexpected; or expected loss... stillbirth, miscarriage, TFMR or abortion procedures.

I can companion your family during the birthing process or medical procedure; holding space for during this devastating time. My role can include supporting your family by discussing options & advocacy tools, preparing the room and creating sacred space to receive your baby, gently providing information on after delivery bonding with your baby or taking Precious Photos.

I can be a source of information & hold space for your family as you make those most difficult decisions to mark your child's death and discuss disposition arrangements with your chosen funeral home. This includes supporting your family in making initial contact with the funeral home, or attending arrangement meetings in a companion role. I can assist you with the composition of an obituary or birth announcement.

Remembrance Ceremonies

Saying farewell to the tiniest of lives is an extremely difficult thing to do. I can help you honour the stillness, loss, disappointment, heartache, distress; what’s soulful. I often see hope emerge as people realize how ceremony & ritual can create a space for healing and connection as they bear the weight of this tragic loss.

Each life is precious, no matter how soon it ends. Together, we can create ceremony where it is possible for you to share all the ways in which your baby was an individual; the effect your child has had in your lives, changing those around you forever in just a short space of time.

Ceremony helps make the invisible visible.

Ceremony helps to express and honour the emotions that come with your loss.

Ceremony helps continue the relationship with your child.

The arrangements that you choose to make to mark your baby’s death through ceremony and ritual are very personal. You may have important family traditions that you would like observed. It may be important to share stories about your pregnancy, the dreams you had and the future you envisioned with this new life. Your ceremony can include a naming ritual/blessing for your baby or a ritual symbolizing letting go. In the midst of sacred space you can encompass ritual elements such as water; music, or meditation.

If you don’t want your baby to be alone during the cremation process, I can provide witness cremation & also conduct any rituals or ceremony during the disposition, should you wish.

I can hold space for your family by acting as a Vigil Keeper, guiding families to perform intimate rituals during a Viewing, before burial or cremation; assisting in organizing a Home Vigil and taking Precious Photos in any of these settings.

 

I invite you to listen to my podcast interviews about my After-Death Ceremony & Ritual Guidance and Remembrance Ceremonies with Spirit Baby Radio Podcast - February 19, 2021 Episode 107 or the Beyond the Loss Podcast- November 22, 2021 Episode 5 Season 2.

 

An honorarium is accepted; but not expected for Remembrance Ceremonies, ceremony script creation and vigil keeper services. If you require more information, please enquire about a suggested honorarium amount range that is sustainable for your family.

Honorariums exchanged for my infant & pregnancy loss doula support services are in accordance with time spent and are in keeping with the fair business practice of fair compensation for services rendered.

E-Transfer, personal cheques or cash are used for honorarium transactions.  No grieving parent/s of a pregnancy or infant loss will be turned away due to circumstances of financial hardship.

ONLINE guidance, consultation and composition services are available for After-Death Rituals, Remembrance Ceremonies, Home Vigils and Home Funeral ceremony scripts.

As part of my scope of service, I do not offer long term one on one bereavement counselling sessions. There are many amazing counsellors & therapists in our area. Please reach out for a referral.