Kukie Mann

Every Step, Every Baby, Every Broken Heart: Walking for Baby Loss

Walking 5K for the babies we carry in our hearts, the families who grieve in silence, and the hope of light after the storm.

October is Baby Loss Awareness Month. It is a time when we come together to remember the babies who are no longer with us, to honour the families who have experienced loss, and to remind those who are grieving that they are not alone.

But for me, baby loss is not something I remember only in October. Every month is a month of remembering. Every day can hold a memory, a longing, a question or a quiet ache for a baby who will forever be part of a family's story.

With every step I take, I will be walking for:

• Every mum longing to conceive, struggling with infertility or unable to conceive.
• Every mum who has experienced a stillbirth.
• Every mum who has endured one miscarriage, multiple miscarriages or the loss of a much-loved baby.
• Every mum and family who has experienced neonatal death.
• Every woman who has experienced an ectopic pregnancy.
• Every family who was told their pregnancy was not viable.
• Every mum who never got to hear her baby's heartbeat.
• Every parent who lost their baby before they had the chance to meet them.
• Every mum who has never told anyone about her loss and has carried her pain in silence.
• Every family whose loss happened years ago but whose grief still visits them.
• Every mum who was told she was not far enough along for her loss to matter.
• Every parent who was told to move on, forget about it or get over it, when their heart was nowhere near ready.
• Every family who has had to face the world while quietly grieving the future they had imagined with their baby.

I am walking for the losses that people speak about openly and the losses that remain hidden behind closed doors.

I am walking for the babies whose names are spoken every day and the babies whose names are whispered only in the quietest moments.

I am walking for the parents who have photographs, memories and precious moments to hold on to, and for those who never got the chance to make those memories.

I am walking for every family who has ever felt that their grief was too much, too long-lasting or somehow less important because their baby was never brought home.