Bereaved parents group at to host stand at tonight's Cork City FC home game 

A group formed to offer support to parents who are impacted by the death of a baby at or around the time of birth will be hosting an information stand at Turner’s Cross this evening when Cork City host St Pat’s in their Airtricity Men’s Premier Division clash.

Féileacáin (the Irish word for ‘butterflys’) was founded by a group of bereaved parents in Skibbereen in 2009 and has grown into a national charity supporting parents who have experienced perinatal loss.

Mark Millard is head of operations for Féileacáin and availed of the supports offered by the charity after he and his wife Jill lost their baby boy Isaac in 2013.

“Féileacáin was with us from day one,” Mark said.

“From providing a memory box so we could create memories with our baby to taking clay and ink prints of his hands and feet so we could find that special place to hang them at home, keeping him close to us always.

“When you leave the hospital, away from the cocoon that the hospital provides you with, the Féileacáin parents’ support meetings become essential to survival, essential to navigating the lifelong journey they are now on.

“Jill and I went to one of these meetings only four weeks after Isaac passed,” he added.

“We both now facilitate these meetings. We all give back, Féileacáin is a family. It is so important to be able to talk to people who have been through the same experience, an experience only like-minded people can understand and relate honestly to.”

Mark and other bereaved dads regularly go to the Cork City games and thanked the club for facilitating their request to have an information stand at tonight’s match.