In 2006, at eight months pregnant, Lori Beth Blaney was in a head-on automobile accident resulting in the loss of her daughter Rachel.
In the aftermath, Blaney began to look for others online who experienced loss and researched how to begin to heal. During her search, a few similarities stood out to her from those who shared their own experiences.
“There were two things that came through in every single conversation that everyone struggled with,” said Blaney. “Those two things were a sense of avoidance by family members, friends, or the medical staff about the loss, and the other was the amount of regret over things done or not done, decisions made during that time of crisis when you have to make some very permanent decisions.”
As a result, Blaney decided to become the support so many needed during such a tragic time in their lives. She founded the nonprofit Rachel’s Gift in 2008, offering a bereavement program to those who experience infant loss due to a miscarriage, stillbirth, or infant death.
Blaney explains the organization was created to “be a source of guidance during the time of crisis and a soft place to land afterward.”
Rachel’s Gift offers comfort and free resources to families and provides hospital staff with nationally-accredited training to be able to give bereavement care to heartbroken families.
Along with immediate bedside care through trained hospital staff, Rachel’s Gift provides families with memory boxes, which include items such as a handmade blanket, a small teddy bear, ink and clay molds for hand and footprints, burial gowns and wraps, small diapers, brochures, resources, and even age-appropriate ‘sibling packs’ to assist siblings in coping with grief and loss.
The nonprofit has grown by word of mouth from the two local hospitals where it began, Piedmont Henry and Piedmont Newton, to 82 hospitals in 24 states, as of this article.
“Currently, we’re serving about 1,800 patients per year,” said Blaney. “We’ve expanded a lot which, to me, confirms that hospitals have a need for this resource.”
Blaney is currently working to integrate the training into college nursing programs nationwide. She wants to reach future medical staff early in their education before their first time comforting a family experiencing loss.
“We have developed a college course,” said Blaney. “One of our big goals is to get that course published so we can make it available to any nursing college or university in the country.”
Rachel’s Gift will host their annual 5K fundraiser, the Angel Dash, on Saturday, October 20, 2023.
By Erin Lopez
