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.
