MADISON, Wis. — Oct. 15 marks International Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day, and one UW Health Nurse Educator and her family plan to hold a virtual Facebook Live at 7 p.m., to honor those little lives lost.

"It will be two years, yeah," Kim Whitmore said. 

From her Sun Prairie couch, she looks on at one of the last pictures of Alana Rose lying peacefully in her pink newborn blanket, after she was delivered stillborn.

"The hard part of losing a baby that nobody knows is, you know, nobody has memories that are stories to share and you get robbed not only of that child but a lifetime of memories that you should be creating with that child,” Whitmore said. “And so it's such a different type of loss.”

It's a loss she honors through her Alana Rose Foundation and the reason she has a purple butterfly candle prepared for an important night ahead. 

"So you're supposed to leave your candle lit for at least an hour so the idea is that if you haven't lit from 7 p.m. central time to 8 p.m. central time. Then at 8, it'll be 7 p.m. in the next time zone so it's sort of like a, like a wave just like at sporting events a wave of light that goes literally around the globe across all time zones for 24 hours," Whitmore said about her virtual Wave of Light Candle Ceremony.

She hopes it can help countless grieving families cope with the tragedy.

"I think it is something that makes this work even more important because during the pandemic, we're all in isolation and breathing all the other things we've lost in life,” she said. “It's even more, a little more of a lone feeling for families who lose a baby during this time.”

It's the reason she is holding a fundraising drive to purchase a cuddle cot for the Madison area Harambee Village's Black Doulas program.

"I can't imagine only having just a few moments a few hours with your child before they have to take your baby away from you,” she said. “That time to spend physically with your child's body after they die, is so important and there's been research that shows it's really important for the healing and the grief process to be able to have that time and so cuddle cots are more than just a cooling system they really help promote healing for families as well.”

Whitmore is also working on another project this month, taking her angel butterfly display virtual.

"Currently on our website we have close to 100 baby names on our website and have a survey out there for that we're trying to push and promote for anyone who wants their babies included in that display," Whitmore said.

You can learn more about the Alana Rose virtual wave of light event here.

You can donate to the Cuddle Cot effort here.

And learn more about the virtual Angel Butterfly display here.