News

Burial program respects lives lost to miscarriage

St. Bernard Hospital will hold quarterly burials at Holy Cross Cemetery in Jonesboro

Published: September 17, 2019   

By Aprille Hanson
Associate Editor

Courtesy Haley Stotts

Benedictine sisters with Holy Angels Convent and other hospital staff from St. Bernard Medical Center in Jonesboro gather Aug. 20 at the new monument for the hospital’s infant memorial program at Holy Cross Cemetery of Blessed Sacrament Church.

Courtesy Haley Stotts

Benedictine sisters with Holy Angels Convent and other hospital staff from St. Bernard Medical Center in Jonesboro gather Aug. 20 at the new monument for the hospital’s infant memorial program at Holy Cross Cemetery of Blessed Sacrament Church.

Support for prenatal loss

Other Catholic hospitals in the state also have infant burial programs at no cost to families.

• CHI St. Vincent, Little Rock and Hot Springs

The chaplaincy department oversees the CHI St. Vincent Perinatal Bereavement Program in Hot Springs, which helps about 400 families a year. Joshua Cook, spokesman for CHI St. Vincent, said infants up to 19 weeks gestation are buried at Calvary Cemetery in Hot Springs.

At CHI St. Vincent Infirmary in Little Rock, infants are buried up to 19 weeks gestation at Calvary Cemetery in Little Rock through the Journey program, which began in 2000. In December, the infirmary ended its labor and delivery services, but the burial program is still ongoing.

• Mercy Hospital, Fort Smith and Rogers

In Fort Smith, Mercy provides support to grieving parents, including through the Mercy HeartPrints program. An annual memorial prayer service is held in the Mercy Hospital Chapel for families who have lost infants, with a priest officiating. The service is followed by a visit to the memorial site at Calvary Cemetery in Fort Smith. Chaplain Kristie Morris, who specializes in programs at Mercy centering on women’s care, said for the past 15 years about 40 infants, up to 20 weeks old, are buried there annually.

The infant burial program has been a part of Mercy Northwest in Rogers since the late 1990s. Infants up to 20 weeks are buried at St. Vincent Cemetery, through St. Vincent de Paul Church in Rogers, in an area that includes a special stone bench, Art Maddock, manager of pastoral services, stated in an email. More than 1,000 children are buried at the site.

In the emergency room at St. Bernards Medical Center in Jonesboro, a couple faced the death of another child, their third miscarriage. The pregnancy lasted a few weeks longer than the others.

“She had her hopes up. I’ve used her quote — she had that ‘entire baby’s life planned out.’ She already had boy and girl names picked,” said Dana Lands, director of the St. Bernards Birthcare Center. “The plans and hopes in her heart, that was just gone. She did want a way to memorialize that baby.”

To honor the sanctity of life and give peace to families who are grieving, St. Bernards Medical Center began an infant memorial program, burying babies who have died up to 12 weeks’ gestation at Holy Cross Cemetery. The burial is free to families. Funds for the burial program came through donations to the St. Bernards Development Foundation.

“Families are very grateful,” said Sister Maria Christi Cavanaugh, OSB, St. Bernards vice president of mission services and director of pastoral care. “… The mom has come in and had a miscarriage or D and C (dilation and curettage) in the ER. This was a life, this was a child that came into your life and that brings great relief, that brings great comfort and shows it was a human life” to have a burial.

Amid eight adult-size graves sits a large memorial stone. The stone includes a heart carved from red marble — hearkening the St. Bernard logo — with an angel embracing it, along with Jeremiah 5:1, chosen by chaplain Father Mike Sinkler.  

“I wanted it to be a place where people could go. We’re physical people and we need a place to connect to, especially when we have an infant we never got to hold, carry and even see sometimes,” Father Sinkler said, who has been chaplain for 10 years. “… We talk about that we are pro-life and that we believe this is a child from the moment of conception. But we have not always had a real place for them to be buried and celebrate their life.”

A bench and corner markers are also onsite. The memorial stone was recently added, though the hospital first used the gravesite Aug. 29, 2018, burying 44 babies. There are currently 109 babies buried at the site, with 65 buried on Aug. 27, Lands said. Private burials, with a priest and some hospital staff, are planned quarterly. 

Holy Cross Cemetery is owned and operated by Blessed Sacrament Church in Jonesboro. 

In 2017, the Arkansas Legislature amended Act 168, defining a miscarriage as 12 weeks’ gestation or less, changing the previous definition of 20 weeks.

“Even if the law says they’re just a miscarriage at less than 12 weeks, we didn’t want to treat our patients in that same way. That sparked the whole concept,” Lands said.

The memorial program is part of the larger Perinatal Bereavement Program, which has been at St. Bernard for at least the past 15 years, but the hospital has always offered bereavement care for infant loss, including a variety of memorial items, emotional support and counseling, Lands said, who is a certified perinatal bereavement counselor.

For babies who die after 12 weeks’ gestation, the program helps families coordinate with local funeral homes and cemeteries that offer discounts for arrangements.

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