Disenfranchised grief: when loss is not acknowledged with Mairie Cregan

The silence from people ‘was telling me this child did not matter.’ Denise talks to Mairie Cregan, co-founder of Feileacain, the Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Association of Ireland about the silence around the loss of her two babies that led to her setting up the organisation. Determined to provide acknowledgement and support to bereaved…

The silence from people ‘was telling me this child did not matter.’

Denise talks to Mairie Cregan, co-founder of Feileacain, the Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Association of Ireland about the silence around the loss of her two babies that led to her setting up the organisation. Determined to provide acknowledgement and support to bereaved parents, Feileacain now offers rituals including hand and footprints of the baby, memory boxes for parents to fill, and remembrance services where every parent says their baby’s name out loud.

Listen to Mairie describe why hearing their baby’s name may bring a tear to the eye of a bereaved parent, but also brings music to their heart.

Bio

Mairie Cregan from Skibbereen, Ireland, is Chair and co-Founder of Feileacain, the Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Association of Ireland. An adoption social worker who has fostered children herself for many years, Mairie worked with children in Romania after the revolution in 1989, and in Bosnia and Croatia during the Balkans conflict in the 1990s. Mairie still makes several trips to Romania each year along with family and volunteers, to support the alternative care projects she has in place there for young adults with disabilities.