Letter of the Day | More must be done to address pregnancy and infant loss

THE EDITOR, Madam:

October is observed as Breast Cancer Awareness, but this month is also the Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month. In 2019, Jamaica became the first country in the Caribbean to officially recognise it, following a proclamation I petitioned for after my own loss. That recognition was not only for me, it was for the many families who have walked this painful road.

According to Jamaica’s Population Health Status Report (2022), rate of stillbirth is approximately 14 per 1,000 live births, and the neonatal mortality rate is about 15 per 1,000. One in every 34 babies in Jamaica does not survive beyond the first weeks of their life. These numbers are higher – and have barely improved in the past two decades – than the average across Latin American and the Caribbean countries. Jamaica, like the rest of the region, still suffers from weak or inconsistent reporting. Without regular, transparent data, we cannot fully understand the scale of the problem or track whether interventions are saving mothers and babies. This is the real gap that needs urgent attention.

But numbers only tell part of the story. Parents experiencing loss encounter fragmented and sometimes cruel practices. Currently, there are no standardised bereavement protocols. The care grieving mothers and fathers receive depends largely on which healthcare worker is on duty. Too often, staff are untrained in bereavement care, interactions feel dismissive; and mothers who have lost babies are placed alongside mothers with healthy newborns, an ordeal that deepens trauma rather than easing it. I lived this reality. My blood pressure would not stabilise, and my husband nearly pulled me from the hospital because of the duress I was under.

We must also broaden our mental health conversations. The death of a child is widely regarded by psychologists as the most devastating grief any parent can endure. It is not something one simply “gets over”. When our babies die, we lose not just the present but an entire imagined future: birthdays, classrooms, graduations, weddings.

With one in four pregnancies ending in miscarriage, stillbirth, or neonatal death, this is far from rare. Countless Jamaican families have been affected, yet the silence and stigma leave parents isolated in their grief. This must change.

The Ministry of Health and Wellness should consider:

– Establishing national bereavement protocols in all hospitals;

– Training staff in compassionate care for grieving parents;

– Ensuring access to mental health resources for families experiencing loss.

In October, when we focus on breast cancer awareness, let us also remember pregnancy and infant loss awareness. There needs to be space for mothers, fathers, and families who carry this grief, and for the babies who died too soon. Let us see them, remember them, and commit to doing better for those who will walk this road after us.

CRYSTAL-GAYLE WILLIAMS

Founder, 4Damani