Parents of a Stillborn

Make an impact in your hospital or clinic

Setting up an educational forum







Parents of a Stillborn

If you are reading this, you have likely personally experienced the tragedy of having had a baby that was stillborn. It is devastating and life altering to have to cope with the stillbirth of your healthy baby that should be with you in your loving home. We want you to know that our hearts ache for your loss and we grieve the losses of all those who come to us looking for answers, support and resources. We have been down this painful and difficult road and can say that it does help ease some of the pain and brings some healing to DO something for your baby. It is very common to feel anger, to want to blame, to want to make someone pay, to become bitter...but all of that doesn’t ever bring our babies back, nor does it help us heal or grow. There are constructive things you can do though, that will help make a difference. By raising awareness and bringing educational information to your area clinics and hospitals you can help to not only save the life of another baby, but it can also be so honoring of your precious little one. Imagine if someone before you had brought this much needed education to your hospital, how different your life could possibly be right now. You have a very special opportunity to do something with your passion for this issue and the love you have for your baby. Please help us to reach our goals of preventing future stillbirths and ensuring that healthcare professionals provide compassionate and competent care.

Feel free to call or write us for assistance with bringing this much needed education to your area. A vast number of cord related stillbirths are indeed preventable with proper management and monitoring during the pregnancy. This is a medically proven fact! We will team with you and work for you in raising such awareness. Remember that you are not alone on this journey. Grieving is hard work and it takes on many forms. It is a body, mind and soul process. Know however, that you can experience once again, a restored sense of hope, peace and joy.

With Kindest Regards,
Candy and Stephen McVicar
Founder and Directors of  Missing GRACE Foundation

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Make an impact in your hospital or clinic

Parents from around the world write to us asking for a way to help make a difference, and honor the life of their baby that has been stillborn. We believe that through healthcare educational forums parents and families can help change the quality of care for others. It is our goal that other families will not have to experience a stillbirth and the heart ache that a bereaved parent carries.

Missing GRACE Foundation works together with the Pregnancy Institute to help parents in setting up educational lectures at the clinics and hospitals through the parents who are actively seeking to make a positive change in their medical community after the stillbirth of their baby.

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Setting Up an Educational Forum

This page is to be used as a guide, but it is not all inclusive. Please contact  Missing GRACE Foundation directly to assist you in this process.

Download: The UCA 2002 Abstract (Far left box on web site home page)

http://www.preginst.com/address_info.html Go to Business Documentation Jason H. Collins, M.D. Curriculum Vitae

Print copies of both the Abstract and UCA 2002 and have several available to hand out Put them in a 3 ring binder when you give them to people. It is a good idea to include a letter from you and your spouse with a picture of your baby. This can be beneficial in helping the healthcare professional identify with you and hopefully will create a sense of tenderness and compassion to help with your request.

Who to Contact:
Any of the physicians that were involved in the prenatal care or delivery of your baby.

Set up a meeting with them and tell them you have some questions and things to discuss-not going into too great of detail on the phone, as they will likely be very busy and have little time. Take charge of the meeting, and lay out your agenda (ex: In the next 20 minutes I have a few questions, and some important information to share and then I would like to hear your response). At the meeting ask them if they would assist you in helping set up a lecture for Dr. Collins to come and teach on UCAs (Umbilical Cord Accidents). Give each person copies of the materials you have prepared with the information about Dr. Collins.

Go through some highlights on his credibility (OB for over 25 years, dedicated more than 15 years to stillbirth research and education, published, etc.) Explain how he speaks across the country in similar fashion with other hospitals and clinics. Remember this is not just Dr. Collins personal research and opinion, but an accumulation of documented and published research from physicians since 1800s. The Abstract is a tool to show all the references to prove this. Dr. Collins has compiled this information to help show that this is not just his opinion or just his research that have brought him this understanding of umbilical cords and cord accidents. He is a consultant for physicians around the world who seek him out for his expert opinion on the care and management of a pregnancy with an evident cord issue. Dr. Collins provides the physicians with feedback on their fetal heart rate strips and ultra sounds. Invite your care providers to call Dr Collins directly to discuss the lecture and or grand rounds and any questions they have. They can also contact the Spokesperson for The Pregnancy Institute, Candy McVicar at Missing GRACE Foundation offices.

You can share with your physicians some of these situations that Dr. Collins manages on a regular basis: mother, 36 weeks along, complained of decreased movement, he gave her an ultra sound, discovered the cord around the neck of baby 3 times. Put her in hospital to have constant monitoring, after a few days baby had showed consistent signs of stress having decels in heart rate-especially while mother slept. Fetal Demise would have happened if she was told to go home and rest and take it easy. She would have never made it to full term with out losing baby, He delivered a healthy baby with cord around neck 3 times, with a break down in Wharton’s Jelly in the cord. This was one of 3 of his patients in that week, that were all receiving constant monitoring, all with different cord issues seen on ultra sound, all now delivered healthy babies that might have not survived without these measures taken to save the babies lives. None of the women in this group were classified as high risk.

Explain the importance of this lecture to the personal healing and the validating of the importance of your baby’s life. Simply let them know how you don’t want to see anyone else have to go through this pain and heartache and want to make sure that the best education on this issue is provided to the medical professionals in your community. In your questions, ask them -what is their history of stillbirth in that clinic, how many babies have been stillborn in the past year, past months. Ask them what they are required to do for keeping up their continuing education -CEUs or CMEs . You will want the hospital and or clinic to provide CEUs and CMEs for the people who attend the lectures.

Ask if they would let Dr. Collins come for Grand Rounds to visit with 3rd Trimester patients and do ultrasounds with the Radiologist and Techs present too.

The lecture is about one hour long and they would want additional time for questions.

You should try talking to your physicians first, but from experience we have found you may not get far with this avenue due to the circumstances. Continue with similar questions and information with the following people:

Contact the Clinic Manager or the Education Director if they have one at the clinic or hospital.
Contact the Hospital Administrator.
Contact the Head of all - OB/GYN, Labor & Delivery, Radiology (Ultra Sound), Nurse manager.

Additional suggestions & Information:
The phone calls are good, face to face meetings are better, and letters and emails are helpful.

When speaking or writing to someone, implore them to assist you with securing and setting up a date for his lecture. Let people know that there were 85 Drs and RNs who attended a recent lecture of the same nature in MN and in the evaluations many stated how they learned new information and are implementing the information from the lecture for the care of their patients. Dr. Collins typically lectures at one hospital per month – throughout the United States, providing this invaluable information to the medical communities.

Try to secure more than one engagement, (one at the clinic, one at the hospital, one at a neighboring hospital) so to have your greatest impact and to utilize Dr. Collins while you have him on location. Also, remember it’s best to try all the avenues you can, because in the end only 1 may pan out and be a secured lecture appointment.

Once you have a person who is willing and in a position to set up a lecture, find out when they can do it (range of days and times) then call Candy McVicar at  Missing GRACE Foundation to discuss dates and times. Candy will help you get a secured date from Dr. Collins and can work out travel, and hotel arrangements with the hospital.

Dr. Collins does not require payment and he will only accept an honorarium. He will likely rent a car, but may be willing to have transportation provided by you, the parents or a staff person at the clinic or hospital.

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