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Family speaking out about stillbirths to honor son’s memory

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It’s news that brings shock and profound sadness. A stillbirth happens in one out of every 175 pregnancies. For a local family, sharing their son’s story is a way to heal as they take steps to educate others and make sure no one suffers in silence.

Kathleen McCoy and her husband Adam Wilson spoke to WGN’s Medical Watch about their efforts to honor their son.

“A year ago we were preparing, getting everything lined up, to bring home a baby, and then to come home empty handed is heartbreaking,” McCoy said. “The word stillbirth was never uttered.”

They held their son James who was delivered at 39 weeks stillborn.

“I can say in my doctor’s appointments it was simply, ‘Are you feeling fetal movement?’ And that’s it,” McCoy said. “’Is the baby moving? Ok, great.’”

For the parents of two older boys, Connor and Brayden, with their third child, it was another normal, healthy pregnancy.

“And in hindsight maybe the movement was less, but I was also so far along I was also taught the baby doesn’t move as much, but actually that is not true,” McCoy said.

There are initiatives to help educate parents and dispel any myths, like “Count the Kicks,” a global stillborn prevention program that encourages expectant moms to get to know their baby’s normal movement patterns in the third trimester — and to speak up if they notice a change.

“One of the statistics we have learned is up to 25% of stillbirths are preventable,” Wilson said.

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That’s why the couple took their son’s story to Washington, where they voiced their support for the maternal and child health stillbirth prevention act, legislation designed to further boost fetal monitoring and safety measures.

“I can’t change what happened to James, I can’t change what happened to my family,” McCoy said.

But McCoy does hope to change the course for other families. James is named for her father – a 20+ year army veteran buried at Arlington National Cemetery. She ran to honor both at October’s Marine Corps Marathon.

“We feel like we are doing something, and it may not be much, and it may not be meaningful right now or to that many people, but for us personally, this is what we are doing in honor of him,” Wilson said.

National stillbirth experts say the U.S. is far behind other developed countries when it comes to prevention awareness, programming and legislation.

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