Support for Grief and Loss during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Please join Annette Cycon and Wenonah Michallet-Ferrier for insights on techniques for supporting and providing guidance around grieving. The enormity of grief and loss our communities have suffered, and will still be suffering, has taken a toll on all of us. Being pregnant at this time of the pandemic is layered with fear of contracting the virus, grief over the loss of loved ones, changes in hospital birthing policies and postpartum isolation, making this an extremely hard time for perinatal parents. In fact many are experiencing this as traumatic. As providers, we can mitigate that trauma by our skillful and trauma-informed care.

Annette has been a social worker, group facilitator and trainer for over 30 years. She is the Co-Founder/Director of GPS, Group Peer Support, which provides training for professional and peer leaders from diverse populations to facilitate the refined, evidence and trauma-informed GPS support group model to perinatal providers as well as those in the fields of recovery and bereavement. GPS is culturally adaptable and is being implemented nationwide in diverse settings and languages with trusted leaders within the communities being served. (For more information, https://grouppeersupport.org/)

Wenonah is a trained doula and a childbirth & parenting educator specializing in the CenteringPregnancy and CenteringParenting curriculum. She became certified as a Certified Centering Facilitator Trainer by CHI in 2017 and completed Group Peer Support training and 'Holding Space for Pregnancy Loss' with Amy Wright Glenn in 2018. Her work is mentoring and guiding parents during their journey transitioning through pregnancy to parenting. She manages the Centering Program and facilitates groups with a team of Certified Nurse-Midwives in Tucson, AZ, at El Rio Health, a Federally Qualified Health Center serving over 100,000 patients in Southern Arizona.