Welcome to Episode 68 of our podcast, Courageous Conversations, hosted by Leanne Pilkington.
In this episode, our guest is Ann-Maree Imrie, Social Worker, Mother, and Creator of the Baby Loss Project. She talks about the Baby Loss Project and what it seeks to achieve, how leaders and employers can have meaningful and informative conversations around grief and loss, how her own experience with stillborn loss has helped bring the project to life, and the impact of the project so far.
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00:20 – The Baby Loss Project, an online training program that upskills employers to create policy, and respond proactively to pregnancy loss, stillbirth and infant death.
02:00 – Knowing what the right thing to say (or not say) when it comes to grief
03:20 – Employers/leaders should implement structure around these difficult conversations around grief/sadness with employees
04:30 – How the Baby Loss Project came about based on Anne-Maree’s own experience with her stillborn Xavier; ironing out the kinks of her own experience through the project
06:45 – From idea to reality; who Ann-Maree worked with to get the Baby Loss Project off the ground and running, and pursuing online training
08:30 – How long it took the Baby Loss Project to launch, including her current crowdfunding campaign and how she promoted it through her personal network
10:45 – How to move on years and years on from Ann-Maree’s own experience with Xavier
12:30 – Understanding the power of what Xavier and the people around Ann-Maree has allowed her to achieve
13:00 – Carrying the stories of grief from others and how to deal with this (particularly as a leader)
14:30 – How Ann-Maree overcome being outside of her comfort zone with public speaking and television appearances
16:15 – What the response to her project has been like
17:20 – How you can support the project; check out the crowdfunding campaign and babylossproject.com for more information