Still Parents: Life after Baby Loss

Credit: Still Parents: Life after Baby Loss, 2021
Photo by David Oates

October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss awareness month, where we recognize the tens of thousands of families across the U.S. who have lost a child during pregnancy or right after birth. The grief of these parents is often overlooked and not typically acknowledged. The loss of a baby is a difficult experience, which can be compounded by leaving the parents without a way to express their deep pain to others. In the United Kingdom, Lucy Turner, founder of Still Parents, seeks to match bereaved parents with practitioners and artists who help them process their loss and produce creative responses.

Credit: Still Parents
Stacey Hill

Lucy Turner shares, “After losing my daughter Jenny in 2016 I found The Whitworth, the building and its art, a huge comfort, I wanted to find a way to share that with others in some way. After my loss I didn’t access any support, I just didn’t feel like it was for me. I didn’t want to talk but I did want to meet other people who had experienced something similar to me, to meet people who understood.

This is where Still Parents was born. The seed of an idea that gave me hope in the depths of my grief that has now grown into this wonderfully caring community.”

Credit: Still Parents
Lucy Turner

Tuner continues, “Together we have created a safe space to share our babies, to open up the conversations and to change the narrative around baby loss. This openness, at a time when closing down is often the only option, has provided a level of freedom to explore our emotions through art, with truly moving results.

These are our stories and by sharing them we hope to break the wall of silence that continues to surround baby loss.”

Credit: Still Parents
Vanessa O’Conner

The parents who take part in the Still Parents workshops learn to share their experiences through print-making, photography, creative writing, embroidery and ceramics. Participants are invited to view the artworks on display at the Whitworth Museum in Manchester, where they can craft creative responses to the pieces they see, or they can create their own pieces that are deeply personal and connected to the loss of their own child.

Still Parents: Life after Baby Loss is a lovely exhibition of pain, grief, hope, and healing. Artistic pieces of mourning are interspersed with the participants’ creative pieces. Many parents also generously donated artifacts, items that were meant for their child who was not able to receive or enjoy them.

Credit: Still Parents
Photo by Michael Pollard

With any loss, the bereaved may feel alone. However, with the loss of a baby who was never given the chance to be, the pain can feel especially isolating. Since the loss of a baby is not often discussed, parents may wrongly feel that they are the only one experiencing this sadness. Projects like Still Parents allow mothers and fathers to meet with other parents who have known the same type of grief. They no longer need to feel lonely in their loss, but they can lean on each other as they mourn their children together. By displaying their artwork and artifacts in public, the parents help to break the silence surrounding baby loss and inspire others to share their grief as well.

You can watch more about Lucy Turner’s vision and the power of Still Parents: Life after Baby Loss at the Whitworth Museum in the video below.