1.1.1 - Volunteer Orientation Web Site - Perinatal Bereavement Services Ontario

1.1.1

Our Philosophy:
Support All Bereaved Parents and Their Families

Finding people who truly understand the grief that follows a death of a baby is often difficult for bereaved parents. Although friends and family may extend caring hands, it’s hard for them to relate to the variety of feelings grieving parents experience, unless they have gone through it themselves. That’s why at PBSO, we have a philosophy that is followed by all of our Volunteers and Staff Members:

	•	We recognize that the intensity of the grief reaction experienced by parents is related to the attachment to the baby, not the gestation of the pregnancy, the age of the baby at the time of death, or the circumstances of the loss.
	•	We accept that grief is a normal response to the death of a baby and respect the individuality of that response.
	•	And, we understand that PBSO services are provided without discrimination to parents and their families who have experienced the death of a baby through miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, medical termination, stillbirth or neonatal death regardless of race, religion, socioeconomic status, sex, sexual orientation or geographic location in Ontario.

The sculpture "First Flight" is located in the children's garden at Mt. Pleasant Cemetery and was created by Juliet Josco.