IMPACT (Infant Maternal Perinatal Advanced Care Team)
IMPACT continues to provide compassionate, multidisciplinary care to families who receive a life-threatening diagnosis for their baby during pregnancy, walking alongside them through decision-making, loss, and long-term grief. From April 2025 to January 2026, IMPACT received 60 new referrals, reflecting both the ongoing need for specialized perinatal palliative and bereavement support and the program’s growing presence within the hospital and broader community.
This year, IMPACT expanded its grief support initiatives to further honour parenthood, memory and connection. A Mother’s Day photoshoot, hosted at Emily’s House, created a gentle and affirming space for bereaved mothers to acknowledge their motherhood journey. Families were invited to participate in a private, reflective photo session, bringing meaningful keepsakes and loved ones as they wished. These sessions recognized that motherhood endures beyond loss and offered families a tangible way to honour their babies and themselves.
IMPACT also launched a Bereavement Bear fundraising initiative in partnership with Cuddle for Keeps. These custom, Canadian-made bears are weighted to match each baby’s birth weight and embroidered with the baby’s name, offering families a deeply personal keepsake to hold when their arms feel empty. The goal of this initiative is to provide every bereaved family cared for by IMPACT with a bear at no cost, offering comfort, connection, and remembrance during the darkest moments of loss.
Throughout the year, families consistently shared how meaningful IMPACT’s presence has been during and long after their time in hospital. Parents described feeling guided, supported, and never alone, often emphasizing that IMPACT’s care began before their loss and continued for years afterward. One family shared that nearly three years later, they still feel comforted knowing their child’s life mattered to others. Another reflected that, as a newcomer to Canada without family nearby, the IMPACT team became an important source of support, offering peace and comfort that “cannot be measured by numbers alone.”
As IMPACT continues to grow, the program remains grounded in its commitment to individualized, compassionate care; supporting families not only through crisis, but through memory, healing, and enduring connection.
Impact – from an IMPACT parent: “The IMPACT team has been instrumental in helping us navigate the heartbreaking experience of losing our baby. Especially when preparing for his loss, what would happen on the day of and next days. It’s difficult to express how grateful I am to this team and the love and empathy they show. IMPACT had also prepared teddy bears and a book to help my kids cope with the loss, as well as clay to take imprints of our baby’s hands and feet.”
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