October is pregnancy and infant loss awareness month with the inaugural Butterfly Run Victoria kicking off the month on October 1 st with a 5 km and 3 km run/walk to raise awareness about these often-silent losses.

It is estimated that 1 in 4 women will experience a pregnancy loss, and that 1 in 6 will experience infertility. However, there continues to be a taboo surrounding these losses, leaving many individuals and families dealing with their grief in isolation.

The Butterfly Run was founded by families who experienced miscarriage or infant death and wanted to bring awareness and support to those that may be grieving in the shadows and share the message, “you are not alone.”

For Samara Ferguson, previously a doula and now working at Station Street Midwives in Duncan, having a miscarriage or a baby born still is a silent grief. “I had an uneventful second pregnancy and was in labour for 12 hours when my son Wylder was born still in 2014. We were in complete shock. Once we left the hospital there was a void. There was no counselling or therapy or other families we could talk to, and you feel very alone as people often don’t know what to say or how to respond,” says Samara.

“The Butterfly Run can help to bring this loss out of the shadows and into the open so that the grief families are suffering can be seen and heard.”

Olive Fertility Centre is a proud sponsor of the Butterfly Run and will be running teams in Victoria and Vancouver.

“Experiencing infertility, pregnancy loss or stillbirth is much more common than most people realize. In 2017 in B.C., there were 524 stillbirths alone, and about one out of

six women who know they are pregnant miscarry,” says Dr James Graham, fertility specialist and clinical director of Olive Fertility Victoria. “Studies have shown that women going through infertility treatment and pregnancy loss experience trauma and distress that often does not end even when they have a successful pregnancy. We need to be providing more ongoing support for those who have suffered a loss, and for pregnancy after loss and beyond.”

The few programs that exist are often relatively unknown, underfunded, and hard to access. Dr Kim MacDonald, a high-risk pregnancy specialist, and MJ Harris, an experienced midwife, founded West Coast Perinatal Care to address the need for comprehensive, wraparound, medical and emotional care for women with complicated pregnancies, multiple miscarriages, or fetal death.

“In addition to expert medical care, the families we work with often require emotional and psychosocial support throughout their pregnancy and postpartum period. They may be dealing with trauma, anxiety,fear, and feelings of isolation,” says Dr MacDonald. “We aim to connect families to partner services such as mindfulness programs and acupuncture with Stephanie Curran, and to the Healing Hearts Foundation, which provides peer-support and a safe place for families to share their stories with others.”

Elana Ilot, Director of the Healing Hearts Foundation, knows firsthand the trauma of losing a baby prematurely. “I delivered my first baby, a son, at 21 weeks after receiving quite a complex diagnosis. Even though many families experience pregnancy and infant loss, we still don’t talk about it as a society.

The isolation families feel has been further amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic. I am thrilled that the Butterfly Run Victoria will finally be able to bring people together and provide an opportunity for community building that we so desperately need. It is particularly meaningful that the run takes place on October 1st, which marks the beginning of Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month, as recognized by a City of Victoria proclamation this year.”

Funds raised by the Butterfly Run Victoria will go to support the Healing Hearts Foundation and other programs providing support for families on Vancouver Island. The 5 km and 3 km run/walk will kick off at 10:00 am October 1 st at Clover Point on Dallas Road.

Register at butterflyrunvancouver.com

Olive Fertility Centre is one Canada’s leading fertility and prenatal diagnosis clinics, offering an award-winning IVF lab, personal care teams, and innovative programs including specialized genetic testing, egg freezing and prenatal NIPT testing. It has clinics in Vancouver, Surrey, Kelowna and Victoria.