LA CROSSE, Wis. (WLAX/WEUX) – October is Pregnancy, Infant, and Child Loss Awareness Month, which honors and remembers all babies lost due to miscarriage, stillbirth, SIDS, or unknown causes, something Linsie Clements knows all too well. “Back in 2011, my husband and I experienced the loss of our daughter. She was our firstborn. We lost her late in our pregnancy. It was absolutely unexpected. By far, the hardest thing I’ve ever had to experience.”

Even after 12 years, the tragedy is still hard for the Clements Family. Clements explains, “There isn’t anything that you wouldn’t do for your baby. Whether you had days or months or years with them.”

Resolve Through Sharing (RTS) at Gundersen Health System works with families who have experienced a perinatal loss. Mary Beth Hensel, the Director of RTS, explains, “It is an education program and support program for loss across the lifespan. But it started with perinatal loss in the 1980s and that is by far our biggest reach in terms of the work that we do.”

Clements joined RTS So She Could Help Other Families Who Have Experienced Similar Tragedies. Clements says, “I have worked really hard alongside other nurses and to be able to change the program, to bring awareness, to help others feel less alone in their grief process.”

Clements has advice for grieving families, as well, “I think for those of us to feel supported, we need to be seen and validated in our grief. And that is what I would do. I just encourage everyone to be able to stand and to see their babies’ names and to feel comforted and supported.”

RTS was first developed by Gundersen in 1981 and has helped thousands of families, nationwide.

Gundersen and Mayo Clinic Health System, along with RTS, will be hosting “Walk to Remember” on Saturday from 4 to 6 p.m. at Riverside Park in La Crosse, allowing families who have experienced the loss of a child to gather with others that have similar experiences.