Rachel’s Gift: Nonprofit works to help families recover from infant loss
The 2021 Angel Dash memorial walk in Washington included a biodegradable balloon release to honor the memory of infants lost during pregnancy.
Courtesy of Cortney Beatty
Cortney Beatty of Washington, on the right in a red sweatshirt, participated in the 2021 Angel Dash, a fundraiser for the nonprofit organization Rachel’s Gift.
Courtesy of Rachel’s Gift
Participants of the 2021 Angel Dash memorial 5K and 1 mile walk in Washington, which is the largest fundraiser for the nonprofit organization Rachel’s Gift
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angel dash 4
Courtesy of Cortney Beatty
Joie Bartlett, left, a nurse and bereavement coordinator at WHS Care Center for Family Birth and Women’s Health, with Cortney Beatty, right, participated in the 2021 Angel Dash in Washington, which benefits Rachel’s Gift. Beatty will participate in this year’s walk, planned for Saturday at Washington Park.
When a couple finds out they’re going to have a child, they begin to imagine milestone moments – first steps, the first day of school, high school graduation, a wedding.
What they never think about, says Lori Beth Blaney, is suddenly having to plan a funeral and mourn the loss of an infant – a parent’s worst nightmare.
Blaney, a Greene County native who lives in McDonough, Ga., knows that grief, and it was the loss of her daughter, Rachel, with whom she was 8 months pregnant, in December 2006, that led Blaney to launch the nonprofit, Rachel’s Gift.
The mission of Rachel’s Gift is to guide parents on their path to healing after the loss of a child through miscarriage, stillbirth, or infant death.
“When I lost my daughter due to a car accident, I had a lot of physical injuries myself, and that is where my focus was – my physical recovery. But I was struggling emotionally with the loss and was not in a good place mentally, and I was not headed in a good direction,” said Blaney. “My first step was to reach out on the internet for other moms who had had that loss, and I found there was a huge community.”
But, she noted, there was a lack of resources available for families that experienced pregnancy and infant loss.
Rachel’s Gift works with local hospitals and provides training to hospital staff to become more confident and comfortable caring for their patients during the critical time immediately after they have suffered the lost of an infant.
Additionally, the organization offers online and in-person support groups, follow-up care, and community events, including the Angel Dash 5K or 1-mile memorial run/walk in support of parents who have lost an infant.
On Saturday, more than 1,500 people in nine cities, including Washington, will lace up their shoes for the Angel Dash, held during National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month. It is the biggest fundraiser for Rachel’s Gift.
Cortney Beatty of Washington will be participating in Rachel’s Walk at Washington Park’s Lion Pavilion for a second time.
Beatty was 29 weeks pregnant with her daughter, Amelia, when she suffered a placental abruption on June 8, 2021, and her daughter was stillborn the next day.
While recuperating at Washington Health System Washington Hospital, a nurse gifted Beatty with a keepsake box from Rachel’s Gift containing items including a handmade blanket, Rachel’s Gift stuffed angel bear, clothes, a copy of the book “When Hello Means Goodbye,” an end of life care guidance flyer, and resource pamphlets for support groups, financial assistance, and other information.
“I was grateful for it. Getting the information was very helpful because it made it easier to be able to reach out to people,” said Beatty. “There was a lot in the box I got, and it just meant so much to me knowing that people took time to make the (clothes and blanket).”
For Joie Bartlett, a nurse and bereavement coordinator for WHS Care Center for Family Birth and Women’s Health, the partnership with Rachel’s Gift has been valuable.
“I think as nurses, we’re nurturers and fixers. Our job is to fix something and make it right, and this is a situation where we can’t make anything right,” said Bartlett. Rachel’s Gift helps us in some small way to help parents navigate,” said Bartlett. “There’s nothing you can say that makes the situation better. Just because a baby wasn’t born alive doesn’t mean the baby didn’t have a name, that it hadn’t been loved for all those months. Those boxes and the items they hold really help. (Moms) may not look at that box for months, but it’s there as a tool and it really helps.”
During this year’s Angel Walk, participants will release biodegradable balloons to honor their children.
Beatty said participating in the walk – and talking about Amelia – helps keep her memory alive.
“I felt like if I didn’t talk about her, her memory would just disappear, so I’m starting to talk more about her,” said Beatty. “I still struggle. There are still times when I break down, but I want to talk about her because she was still here, regardless, even though she didn’t get to take her first breath.”
Beatty plans to take part in the walk every year.
“I want to try to help somebody going through it, or who went through it,” said Beatty. “I walked with close friends and family last year, and met so many other people that it’s happened to.
Jane Diethorn of California Borough found out about Rachel’s Gift after her daughter, Kristen Louttit, delivered a stillborn daughter, Genevieve Harper Louttit, at 39 weeks in February 2019.
Diethorn and family members were gathered in a waiting room at WHS Washington Hospital when a nurse stopped in and handed Diethorn pamphlets, and shared with Diethorn that she had suffered a late-term pregnancy loss 20 years ago.
Later on, when she looked at the information from Rachel’s Gift, Diethorn was surprised at how informative and comforting it was.
“There was material on grieving for mom, dad, grandparents, family and friends, information that could only have been gleaned from someone who had experienced it. I made copies and sent them to family and friends. That was my introduction to Rachel’s Gift. It’s phenomenal,” said Diethorn.
Louttit’s mother-in-law, Jan Langland-Kopcak, kept in touch with Blaney and convinced Louttit and family members to take part in the 2021 Angel Dash. Louttit and her family will take part in this year’s walk, too.
“It’s nice to connect with other parents and families that have experienced the same or similar thing. I usually don’t like to be the center of attention, but on that day, I feel not only is it remembering the child, but it’s important for the families too. It’s definitely comforting to know that we aren’t the only ones who are going through this,” said Louttit.
Diethorn said she doesn’t think people realize how many parents have grieved the loss of an infant because it’s not something that’s talked about a lot.
“At the time of our loss I knew one other family that had a late-term pregnancy loss, and that was 25 years ago. We have a huge support system at our church and in our community and family, and after our loss we couldn’t believe how many people told us they had the same thing,” Diethorn said. “Our faith is what has carried us through and helped us to not sink into despair, because this is a horrific experience and it would be easy to just sink.”
Since its founding in 2008, Rachel’s Gift has served more than 1,300 families in 21 states.
Reflecting on the organization’s growth – in 2009, Rachel’s Gift cared for 14 families – Blaney explained that helping other families has helped her healing process and kept her daughter’s legacy alive.
“Rachel’s gift has definitely grown, and to me, every year that we grow just cements that it was so needed,” said Blaney. “The way I’ve always looked at it is, I feel like that even though my daughter was not able to make her mark on the world herself, I’m doing that for her so that her life meant something, even though it was so brief.”