IF you have noticed your Facebook feed looking a little pink and blue this month, your friends may be getting behind a growing social media trend that is taking off this October.
The #gopinkandblue campaign encourages Facebook and Twitter users to colour their profile pictures pink and blue in support of those who have experienced pregnancy loss.
October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month, with October 15 a widely recognised remembrance day.
Campaign supporter and Pregnancy Loss Australia (PLA) support group coordinator Thorun Ledger said raising awareness about pregnancy and infant loss was vital for grieving families.
The Jimboomba mother’s first child, Kolton, was stillborn in January, 2013.
Ms Ledger said without the support of organisations like PLA, she and husband Terry would not have coped with their grief.
“I don’t understand why there is silence around this issue,” she said.
“One thing I’ve found working with women who’ve experienced pregnancy loss is they were totally unprepared… they’d found themselves in their worst nightmare clutching for tools of support.
“That’s where these community organisations come into place… to provide that first contact and just someone who comes in and says ‘your baby matters’.”
Among the Ledger’s support network at the time was fellow Jimboomba resident and Heartfelt pregnancy and infant loss photographer Amy Bergman.
“They (Heartfelt) go into hospitals and often maternity wards where the staff themselves don’t have any bereavement experience,” Ms Ledger said.
“It’s amazing because aside from your partner… it’s such a significant event but you are very alone.”
For Ms Ledger, who joined PLA after Kolton’s death, online support has been just as real as having people on the ground.
She said getting behind the #gopinkandblue campaign was a way of showing solidarity and reminding grieving families they were not alone.
“Having October as a month of pregnancy loss and infant loss awareness is important because it gets people talking about grief and talking about this topic that has touched families,” she said.
“Social media is fantastic, it plays such a huge role in the bereavement community, it is a way of bringing people together.
“You see these pink and blue stripes on their profile pictures and it is so powerful because you think… at least I’m not alone.”
Ms Ledger said supporters of the awareness month would light a candle at 7pm on October 15, creating a “wave of light” across the world.
For more information on pregnancy loss or an awareness event near you, click here.
