Baby Loss Support Groups
Our Baby Loss Support Groups Have Transitioned to Virtual
Our monthly support groups are for people who have experienced a miscarriage, stillbirth, termination for medical reasons (TFMR), or if your baby died shortly after birth. Anyone affected by this type of loss is welcome. Feel free to bring your partner or a support person. Partners need support too and your support person may learn ways to better understand what you are going through and how to hold space with you. Our support groups are open to all faiths and are not faith-based.
What is a support group like? People share their stories and current struggles, hear what has been helpful from others, and meet someone who might be a new friend. It is a safe space to feel all of your emotions with others who understand exactly what you are going through. There is no pressure to speak if you just want to come and listen. We focus on what we have in common instead of how we are different.
We have made each support group unique to your loss experience-
- Miscarriage, stillbirth and newborn death from a life-limiting diagnosis - First Monday of the month
- TFMR (termination for medical reasons)- First Wednesday of the month
- Black community- Second Thursday of the month
- Pregnancy & Parenting After Loss- Second Monday of the month
Please select what group fits your needs best.
We will sometimes offer special, in-person support groups to bring in different modalities of healing, incorporating art, yoga, or music, to give you the opportunity to explore other ways to process your grief. We add events often, so check back frequently or check out our Facebook Events page or our calendar to stay updated.
In a effort to create a safe space, we have a few requirements. This is a private group so please make sure that you are in a quiet, private, child-free space when you are in the virtual room. We also ask that you keep your camera on and blur your background (but not shut off the camera).
Our hope is that that we can create a community where the newly bereaved have a place to be welcomed, all can offer and receive support and share what is on their heart so that no one feels alone on this grief journey.
Please select your support group session from the calendar below and RSVP. You will receive an email with the ZOOM link so please save that email. We hope you will try it out and see if it is something that is helpful as you mourn the loss of your baby.
We ARE open to going back to in-person if we have enough attendees.
Meet Your Moderators
Gabriela Hershman - Baby Loss Support Group
Gab's first encounter with grief was when she lost a close loved one as a child, which planted a seed in her heart. In 2017 Gab was invited to join a Women's Ministry Leadership Team where she led the Care and Comfort Team to serve the expectant/new moms, and bereaved women of her church.
Two years later, she found herself the one in need of the support as her family navigated the diagnosis and death of their sweet daughter and sister, Katalina, who was stillborn. In 2020 Gab pursued birthwork and became a doula with a specialty to serve those pregnant after loss, along with families currently experiencing loss as a bereavement/postpartum doula, photographer, and wellness advisor.
Gab's latest training and education includes lay, grief, and pastoral counseling to enhance her support to bereaved families as they process and walk their grief journeys. Today, you can find Gab supporting other doulas she teaches and mentors with a trauma informed perspective. She enjoys making keepsakes for bereaved families, teaching Pregnancy After Loss classes to expectant families, and her current project is a complex birth processing intensive support program for all.
Monthly, Gab hosts a cohort support group for her perinatal professional colleagues enduring challenging seasons of their own. She is thrilled now for the full circle moment to partner with Pittsburgh Bereavement Doulas to co-host some of their support groups, and share the comfort that she received as PBD supported her 5 years ago.
Jenea Edwards - Black Loss Community
Jenea Edwards is the founder of Maddies GEMs, a support group established in October 2020 dedicated to assisting moms and families who have experienced the loss of a child due to miscarriage, stillbirth, abortion, or other factors. The organization is named in memory of her daughter Madison, whom Jenea lost when she was six months pregnant. Motivated by her own experience, Jenea created Maddies GEMs to provide the support she needed during that difficult time.
Currently, Jenea is pursuing a Master's degree in Social Work at the University of Pittsburgh while working as a middle school social worker. She is also a loving mom to her son. Passionate about her work, Jenea finds fulfillment in helping others and is always ready to offer a listening ear to those in need.
Holly Wilkerson - Pregnancy and Parenting After Loss
Holly Wilkerson was one of the first families served by the Pittsburgh Bereavement Doulas when her 2nd child, a daughter, was born still in December of 2018. In addition to her own grief and that of her husbands, they were also navigating how to parent after loss with their then 3 and half year old son, Logan. In the spring of 2020 during the start of the global pandemic, Holly gave birth to their rainbow baby, Marlena. Holly knows first hand what it is like to survive the loss of a baby, the difficult and complex challenges that arise during a pregnancy after loss and how to balance parenting after loss with young children. Holly is also a 500 hour trauma informed certified Social Emotional Learning and Yoga Instructor with specializations in mindfulness and restorative yoga.