Advice about what to do next
To schedule a home visit
Information about burial and memorial options
Spiritual and emotional support
Call your healthcare provider. If the situation seems to be a medical emergency, go to the nearest emergency room.
Please contact Holy Innocents Ministry at 410-547-3142 or at holyinnocents@archbalt.org to notify us of the upcoming appointment. Inform your doctors that you wish your child’s body to be released to the custody of the Archdiocese of Baltimore who will then bury your child in an upcoming burial.
If you would like ministry volunteers to come to your home to provide for burial of your child, you simply call (410) 547-3142 or email us (holyinnocents@archbalt.org). We will arrange a time that is best for you and your family. Two volunteers will come for a brief visit, answer any questions, offer resources, take custody of your child’s remains for burial, and pray with you if you would like.
Holy Cross Cemetery
6020 Ritchie Highway
Baltimore, MD 21225
Holy Cross Cemetery, through the generous donation of the Sisters of Christian Charity who donated graves back to the Cemetery, has created a garden dedicated to the burial of children who are miscarried.
For more information about the Cemetery, please contact us at 410-547-3142 or at holyinnocents@archbalt.org
Losing a child through miscarriage, though an unspoken pain, is quite a common pain. Approximately 20-25% of pregnancies end in miscarriage.
In some cases, miscarriage may be related to infertility. However, it is important to consult with your primary healthcare provider about your miscarriage.
Blessing of parents after miscarriage
You can also submit your prayer request to prayers@archbalt.org. A team will keep you in prayer.
The first thing that you can do is just be present with them and pray for them. Let them grieve at their own pace. Let them share or simply be silent. Pray with them and for them.
20 Ways to Support Love Ones Grieving the Loss of Their Baby
Loving Parents after a Miscarriage
If they would like to speak with someone who can give advice, support, provide a home visit, or for burial and memorial options, please share our helpline number: 410-547-3142 or email: holyinnocents@archbalt.org. Share this website with them.
If you are interested in being a volunteer with this ministry, please feel free to contact us at holyinnocents@archbalt.org or at 410-547-3142. No special skills required. Volunteers will receive training for their role.
St. Joseph’s Medical Center (https://www.umms.org/sjmc) offers the mother/parents the option of leaving the fetal remains after any type of fetal loss, from a spontaneous miscarriage, D & C following fetal demise, or late term loss, to be buried at one of the hospital’s twice-yearly fetal burial services. The remains are individually identified and tagged and kept in the morgue until the next burial occurs. Ruck Funeral Home donates its services, and the Sisters of St. Francis have donated a plot in Holy Redeemer Cemetery. Parents are invited to a simple service during which each child is named. There is no cost to parents for this service. For late term losses (23 weeks or more of gestation), parents may have a funeral home take the remains and have their own burial. Parents are not given the option of burying the remains themselves. If the parents give no instructions, the fetal remains are included in the next burial service.
Saint Agnes Hospital provides burial for fetal remains associated with early pregnancy losses and ectopic pregnancies, whether mothers come through labor and delivery or not (i.e., emergency department, operating room, etc). Mothers do not have to ask Saint Agnes to provide a burial. These babies are automatically included in Saint Agnes’s burial program and the mothers are invited to the burial services.
Bon Secours Baltimore Health System (https://bonsecours.com/baltimore) does not have labor & delivery. However, in the event of a miscarriage in the emergency room, Bon Secours joins with St. Joseph’s Medical Center for its fetal burial service.
If you feel strongly about burying your child, discuss the hospital’s policy with your physician before undergoing any procedures.
Holy Innocents Ministry burial and memorial service is for children lost through miscarriage or pregnancy loss. Families whose children will be buried by Holy Innocents Ministry will gather for this service. Others are welcome to attend and pray for the families or for past pregnancy loss. For more information, please contact Holy Innocent Ministry at 410-547-3142 or at holyinnocents@archbalt.org.
Holy Innocents Ministry will host a Vespers service for families who have experienced miscarriage, pregnancy loss or any loss of children. This will be prayer, reflection, remembrance of the lives of these children, and fellowship. All are welcome to attend. For more information, please contact Holy Innocent Ministry at 410-547-3142 or at holyinnocents@archbalt.org.
**These are associated with Catholic hospitals, parishes or other Catholic institutions.
St. Joseph’s Hospital (website)**
Division of Maternal Child Health
7620 York Rd.
Towson MD, 21204
410-337-1109
Mercy Medical Center**
301 St. Paul Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
410-332-9600
(Only open to Mercy patients)
Greater Baltimore Medical Center (GBMC)
6569 North Charles Street
Towson, MD 21204
Call: Women’s Resource Center
443-849-2308
443-849-2079
Sinai Hospital
2401 W. Belvedere Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21215
Call: 410-601-5192
Franklin Square Hospital
HUGS Support Group
9000 Franklin Square Drive
Baltimore, MD 21237
443-777-7839
Carroll County General Hospital
The Family Birthplace
Westminster, MD 21157
Call: 410-871-6919
Carroll Hospice
Footprints
292 Stoner Avenue
Westminster, MD 21157
Call 410-871-7231
Upper Chesapeake Medical Center
Miscarriage, stillbirth, and infant death
500 Upper Chesapeake Drive
Bel Air, MD
Call: 800-515-0044
Meritus Medical Center – Labor of Love (website)
Robinwood Medical Center
11110 Medical Campus Rd.
Hagerstown, MD 21742
Contact: Meritus Medical Center Bereavement Support – 301-790-8614
or call 301-739-3863 or 301-739-2439
Hospice of Washington County (website)
747 Northern Avenue
Hagerstown, MD 21742
Contact: Grief and Bereavement Support Department
301-790-6360
Hope Through Birth
Maranatha Brethren Church
19385 Scott Hill Drive
Hagerstown, MD 21742
Contact: Stephanie Nalley
240-452-6323 or hopethroughbirth@gmail.com
Faces of Loss, Faces of Hope
Caleb Ministries
Hannah’s Prayer Ministry
Emotional Healing after Miscarriage: A Guide for Women, Partners, Family & Friends
M.E.N.D. Mommies Enduring Neonatal Death
Purposeful Gift
Perinatal Hospice
All That Love Can Do
Still Birthday
A Mom’s Peace
Naomi’s Circle
Sufficient Grace Ministries
The Haven Network
Be Not Afraid
Heaven’s Gain
Compassionate Friends
Molly Bears
National Share
Springs in the Desert
Pregnancy Loss
And Then You Were Gone: Restoring a Broken Heart After Pregnancy Loss by Becky Avella
Safe in the Arms of God: Truth from Heave about the Death of a Child by John MacArthur
Perinatal Care
I Will Carry You by Angie Smith
Waiting with Gabriel by Amy Kuebelbeck