This past summer, I was blessed to spend several Saturday mornings gathering at the church with other Oceanside women to design and sew little cotton bags for Island Health. This time together was not just encouraging for me personally, but also felt like a God-given opportunity for healing.
Following a miscarriage several years earlier, the surgical team at a local hospital had handed me a container with my baby’s remains during my care there. The container they chose was shocking to me, and felt disrespectful to the memory of my baby. I was deeply hurt by this experience but did not have the capacity to undertake anything in the midst of grieving the miscarriage.
In early 2025, God brought this memory to my attention again, but this time with a desire to change the container I took issue with for future women. Thankfully, Island Health and the hospital representatives were very apologetic, cooperative, and communicative. After several months of emails and ZOOM calls to discuss options for improving patient care in this area (specifically, women who have experienced a miscarriage) we were able to come up with a plan for an improved container for fetal remains (called “product of conception” within the medical community).
When I was tasked with supplying the handmade cotton bags, I immediately knew who I would approach to help me; the women of Oceanside Community Church! Time after time, these women had jumped at the opportunity to give and serve wherever there was a need. This time was no different as several came forward, eager to help and donate supplies to this cause. Over the summer, we met several times at the church loaded with sewing machines, fabric, and other supplies to cut fabric and take measurements, while the rest of the work was done at home in our spare time. It was an amazing time of fellowship and encouragement; watching these women use their skills and passions to serve God through this sewing project (a BIG thank you to Brittany, Bonny, Tonnie, Lee, Julie, Sheila, Monica, Brandy, Presley, Judy, and Andrea, as well as anyone else who prayed for or supported this project!)
By the end of the summer, we had made 65 beautiful drawstring cotton bags to house the fetal remains container that the hospital had agreed to hand out over the next year, with the Oceanside women willing to make more in future! The hospital team, grateful for the donated bags, also offered them to the other 8 Vancouver Island hospitals for their own patients. The news of our sewing project has also spread to some local sewing/ quilting groups who have planned to make their own to donate towards the hospital! This joint effort will mean that the hospitals will have an ongoing supply for years to come.
While it won’t erase the grief of future VI women experiencing a miscarriage, it will hopefully bring some level of comfort, and remind them that they are loved and cared for by others, while sending a message to Health practitioners all over Vancouver Island that we care for the unborn.
2 Corinthians 1:4, “...Who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”