WA brides donate gowns to Angel Gowns Australia for stillborn, miscarried babies

(Photo:evening dresses)

But a group of dedicated volunteers, helped by WA brides, are doing what they can to be there for couples in the midst of unimaginable grief.

Angel Gowns Australia makes garments from old wedding dresses and donates them to hospitals nationwide for parents of stillborn or miscarried babies.

Ilga Boomsma, who runs the WA branch of the national charity, said it was about giving parents something beautiful, made with love and respect, to farewell their child.

For Bicton couple Andrew and Jane Liu, the gowns made out of Jane’s wedding dress were a way to honour the lives of the son and daughter they never got to meet.

Jane had two miscarriages while the couple were living in Canada several years ago.

The couple have since had a son, Christian, now six, but the pain from the loss of their son, Tristan, at 24 weeks and daughter, Hope, at 23 weeks remains with them.

“In those very early days, there’s nothing that makes you smile,” Jane said.

“I can remember looking out the hospital window and when it’s so devastating, the world’s going on, everyone’s still going on and you want to tell them, ‘Stop, stop, something really bad’s happened’ but it does go on.

“(The gowns are) something to say they were here.”

Local brides have donated more than 400 dresses since the charity was established early last year, Ms Boomsma said.

The WA branch has provided more than 450 gowns, wraps, vests and tutus to hospitals across the state.

They have been assisted by courier group Toll, which transported the not-for-profit group’s garments to hospitals free of charge.

Ms Boomsma, originally from Sweden, said brides had donated simply because they wanted the outfits from their special day to go to a good cause.

Others didn’t want their dress yellowing in a wardrobe never to be used again, while some wanted something good to come of a painful divorce, she said.

Ms Boomsma, a retired nurse living in Subiaco, said she could recall being at a breach birth as a young nurse when the couple lost their child.

“It was terrible,” she said.

“I could still remember it to this day and I thought, ‘If I could have done something, just to be there for these parents’.

“And that’s what the whole thing is about.

“The other thing is breaking the silence, because people don’t talk about it.”

The group has been overwhelmed by the generosity of brides who have donated dresses and currently do not need more gowns.

Volunteers and donations for thread and other materials, however, were always welcome, Ms Boomsma said.Read more at:formal dresses for women

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