Pregnancy and infant-loss awareness

“Do you have kids?”

It seems like a simple question, but for many, it is difficult to answer. We’ve lost two babies, both in the second trimester of pregnancy — our beautiful daughter and our precious son. We will never see their smiles, hear their giggles, or dry their tears. So when asked if we have children, the answer is not easy.

Thursday is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day. All over the world, people are encouraged to light a candle at 7 p.m. in their time zones. For more information, please see www.october15th.com.

If you know that someone has lost a pregnancy, be helpful by recognizing the significance of losing a baby. A simple acknowledgement like “I’m so sorry for your loss” is so appreciated. By being aware that pregnancy loss is common, you can be helpful simply by being sensitive to how you approach this subject.

Many people who have not experienced such a loss may not realize that a period of grieving is necessary. For some, the grief is a public and lengthy experience. Others may grieve in silence.

If you have experienced pregnancy or infant loss, do not expect to be “over it” within any specific time. Grief has no absolutes.

Join us in lighting a candle on Thursday in support of families who have been affected by pregnancy and infant loss and also to raise awareness of this all too common, yet often unspoken heartbreak.

Amy and Barry A’Hearn

Support council candidates who support seniors

In a few weeks residents of Iowa City will have the opportunity to elect four new members to our City Council. Our city has made progress and has been awarded recognition as being a place for seniors to retire to. We have more to do, in particular coming into compliance with Americans with Disabilities Act and Universal Design. I believe that the following candidates are supportive of these issues and concerns: Tim Conroy, Scott McDonough, Pauline Taylor, and Jim Throgmorton. I hope you will support these candidates and allow all citizens of Iowa City to feel welcomed.

Harry Olmstead

Candidates should prove their seriousness on mental health

In the wake of the horrific shooting in Oregon, several Republican presidential candidates, including Ben Carson, Donald Trump, and Mike Huckabee, have insisted that improving this country’s mental-health care system was an issue of great importance to them. I challenge them to prove their sincerity.

    From Gov. Terry Branstad’s veto of funding forcing the closure of the Mount Pleasant and Clarinda Mental Heath Institutes, leaving only two in the state and zero south of Cedar Rapids, to the movement of Clarinda patients to low-rated, ill-equipped private nursing homes, to the state Legislature’s refusal to appropriate funds for much-needed additional beds in the remaining state institutions, there’s plenty to talk about right here in Iowa. I do not see how a candidate as passionate on this issue as they claim could fail to call attention to these failures, because they spent so much time in our state.

Cormac Broeg