MP for Airdrie-Banff, Blake Richards feels grieving parents should be more supported when it comes to infant loss.

Richards brought forth Motion 110, a non-partisan private member’s motion which would see a committee study the impact on parents who have lost an infant child through stillbirth, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), or other complications.

Feeling positive, Richards had a great week, last week, with advocates from British Columbia to Nova Scotia and everywhere in between, coming together in Ottawa to show support for his motion. "We had a really good week with a number of the advocates for the families and parents who have unfortunately had these terrible circumstances happen to them and are now advocating for others, including Sarah Cormier from our constituency in Airdrie, who was the first person to bring this idea forward to my attention."

If a committee study can occur, it will provide an opportunity to address issues that parents may be dealing with on top of grief. "Hopefully we can address the financial hardships that are being created for people when they just need a little time to grieve. I think it will also show these families that their parliament makes a recognition of their suffering and shows we care; to see MPs from all across the country recognizing, standing with them and showing their support, it will mean a lot."

The loss of a loved one at any age is devastating, to begin with, but even discussion around losing a child can be uncomfortable. "That is the reason more than any that we need to be speaking up about this because we need to remove the uncomfortableness around it so that people can grieve, mourn and not feel they have to hide it."

The committee would study a number of different issues by gaining insight from experts, parents with personal experience, advocates, grief counsellors, medical experts, government officials and even hearing from other countries to come up with the best solution. "How does this look? I don't pretend to have all the answers for that and that is why we need a study. But at the end of the day it needs to be something that applies consistently to all families because what we have now doesn't and it needs to be something that is automatic because there are far too many stories that I have heard that have to tell their story to literally dozens of bureaucrats in order to try and get some help from the government. Can you imagine having to tell that story over and over and over again!?"

With no regulations in place, there is no equality. "There are so many different experiences I have heard from different families. Part of it depends on what type of employer you have; is it a federally regulated industry, is it public sector versus private sector employer, how your pregnancy went because maybe you used some of your employment insurance sickness benefits during pregnancy, whether you are on maternity or paternity leave and to some degree just the whim of the bureaucrats making the decision and whether they understood the situation and had compassion and whether you pushed hard enough or advocated hard enough for yourself. The bottom line is every experience seems to be different and this causes traumatic experiences for a lot of people, so in my mind why wouldn't we just make something automatic so these people don't have to deal with some bureaucratic nightmare in addition to their grief and mourning?"

Although Richards was hopeful to gain the Liberals support on Friday afternoon he was extremely disheartened when Liberal MP Karen McCrimmon stood up and made a speech on behalf of the government that was long on words and full of all kinds of excuses as to why the Liberal government could not support this motion. 

Richards is nowhere near throwing in the towel though, the motion will likely be back in the House sometime in June where it will go to vote afterwards. "We hope before summer we will have had a vote on this motion. The motion gives the committee six months following its passage to deal with the study so hopefully, by the end of the year we will have a pretty good sense as to where this all leads."

In the meantime, MP Richards is encouraging community members to click the link Motion 110 on his webpage or follow him on his Facebook page for the latest updates.