DES MOINES, Iowa — MercyOne held their 25th annual Walk to Remember on Sunday, remembering the one in four babies lost each year.

October is National Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness Month. The Walk to Remember is just one of several events that address the loss of babies due to miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, stillborn, or newborn death.

The event gives families, friends, and health professionals a way to come together to remember the lives lost. It also helps spread awareness of the one in four pregnancies that end in the loss of a child.

Over 200 people showed up to the event to remember their babies and provide support to others around them. Connie Thompson, the Bereavement Coordinator for Labor and Delivery at MercyOne, says more people show up each year, some coming every year since it began.

“As the years progress the silence is getting less silent, maybe it’s a social media thing but people aren’t afraid to say anymore that they are one in four,” said Thompson.

Thompson says that events like this help build a community for people suffering with the loss of their baby.

“I think that when a family has gone through such an unimaginable loss that they need a village to navigate that journey and to move through that grief. I think it starts here in the hospital with their nurses and their physicians and then I think it kind of trickles down to their family members, their friends, their community, their churches, their co-workers. So, breaking the silence and just being able to talk about your baby and say their name has come so far.”

Sunday’s memorial service also gives people a chance to open up about their experiences. People are often afraid to address the loss of a child leading to a shut down around discussion related to the death. Thompson thinks that as people become more aware, they also become more open to talking about it.

“Don’t be afraid to ask people about the loss,” said Thompson. “I think people tend to not want to talk about it because they are afraid it’s going to cause grief or hurting someone’s feelings, but I can tell you these families want to talk about their babies. It happened, they exist, it’s a part of their heart, they are part of their family.”

Sunday’s Walk to Remember will be followed by Tuesday’s Wave of Light. No Foot Too Small, an organization that offers support to recently discharged parents who experienced a loss, is hosting the event on October 15. At 7:00 p.m., people are invited to gather outside the Iowa State Capital and light a candle for a lost baby.

Learn more about the Wave of Light Ceremony on their event page.