Today, as I was working on the annual report of Star Legacy Foundation, I felt a bit like a super-proud mama that needs to talk about the accomplishments of our incredible team this last year ! The highlights fall into a few themes.
Involvement in Communities
We were able to finish revising our See Me Feel Me education program to include many of the emerging topics we find 
promising. The materials are now being used in dozens of hospitals and clinics around the country! In addition to this, we’ve been able to provide education events to health care professionals in multiple hospitals about stillbirth prevention and caring for families enduring a poor pregnancy outcome. These programs were accredited for nursing continuing education credits, and we are on our way to becoming an accredited nursing education organization ourselves.
The community of loss families met in Baltimore, MD in October for the ISA/ISPID International Conference on Stillbirth, SIDS, and SUID. We were excited to participate and honored to host the banquet where the NICHD was honored for 50 years of dedication to the health of women and children. This medical community is filled with extremely talented individuals, and it was a pleasure to meet and learn from some of them!
Our commitment to grieving families was the driving force behind our association with 11 Angels, an organization in the Minneapolis metro area providing companioning and grief resources for families beginning their journey of miscarriage, stillbirth, or neonatal death.
Community involvement today also includes the online and social communities! We have a facebook page and group and a brand new website that will be launched later this month.
Research Advancement
We were so pleased to see the publication of the BMC Stillbirth Summit 2011 Summary. The researchers who participated in the Summit continue to amaze us with their dedication to their work. It is exciting to hear how other researchers and OB practitioners are utilizing the information presented by these brilliant people. We thank the authors for their time and commitment to the project! We are also excited to begin work on the next Stillbirth Summit to be held in 2014! Stay tuned and watch our website for more information. If you’d like to be involved in this event, please let us know!
Many of the same researchers who participated in the Stillbirth Summit came together to help us create and launch a new research study – the Study of Trends and Associated Risks of Stillbirth (STARS) Study. This is an online survey designed to learn more about the experiences of families who have had a late stillbirth. We also hope to learn more about the risk factors associated with stillbirth. If you have ever had a stillbirth after 28 weeks gestation, are currently 28 weeks or more pregnant, or have delivered a healthy baby within the last 3 weeks, PLEASE contribute by completing the survey. Also, tell your friends and family who meet these criteria as well. The faster we have a large number of women participating in the study, the sooner we will be able to use results to improve stillbirth prevention research!
Collaboration
We were thrilled to work together with many of our friends in the stillbirth community this year. Stillbirth issues are incredibly complex and will require a great deal of resources of all types. There are strength in numbers and we believe that when we all work together, we will accomplish so much more than we can alone! This included meetings with Healthy Birth Day, the Iowa Department of Health, Babies Remembered, 1st Breath, state and federal legislators, Taylored to You, Missing GRACE Foundation, First Candle, Loss Doulas International, Foundation for Babies, too many bereaved families, and many, many more. We are honored to be a founding member of the Action for Stillbirth Awareness and Prevention (ASAP) Coalition. This group will be tackling the issues that require strength in numbers – and we invite you to join us! There is no commitment to join – just a desire to show your support to end stillbirth! Join here.
I hope you will join me in thanking the incredible people who made all this (and more!) possible! Our dedicated team includes our board members, leadership team, medical advisory team, champions, friends in the baby loss community, and families of children gone too soon. Special thank you to the many people and organizations who donated, held fundraising events, promoted our programs, and supported us in a variety of ways.
We are looking forward to 2013 and the many things we will be able to accomplish together. Contact me at [email protected] if you’d like to join our team or support our programs and projects!
Wishing you all a healthy, peaceful, gentle, and successful new year!
Lindsey J. Wimmer, MSN, CPNP
Executive Director, Star Legacy Foundation
One Comment
N July 2012 I was hit with something that I thought will never happen to me. I had a stillborn and I was 7 months. I was lost devastated questioning why u name it. After counseling I was able to move forward. I still to this day think about my lil man for his ashes rest so peacefully n my living room. I ready to reach out and support other women who may went through what me and my family went. God had a reason but n too he blessed me again in 2013 with another son. I will never forget what happen on that hot summer morning.