Grief support centre expands despite funding challenges

The Pregnancy and Infant Loss Support Centre is losing funding but remains dedicated and has opened a new location in Calgary.

The Pregnancy and Infant Loss Support Centre (PILSC) has expanded to a new location despite a cut in funding from the province.

It officially opened the doors on Thursday to its 3,500-square-foot facility at 14505 Bannister Rd. S.W.

Since it began in 2019, PILSC has remained Canada’s only not-for-profit charity dedicated to a spectrum of complex and often devastating reproductive challenges.

Infertility, miscarriage and infant loss are traumatic, and PILSC founder Aditi Loveridge says there’s a large gap in the mental-health support available.

“That sends a message to the folks that are navigating this that it doesn’t matter, that, ‘Oh, you can just get pregnant again; it’s not a big deal—we brush it under the rug,” said Loveridge.

“That’s simply not the case.”

Anyone navigating such trauma can access counselling or support groups provided by PILSC at no cost.

Losses happen more than people know

These events are tragically common.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports 17 per cent of the adult population, or one in every six couples, experiences infertility.

Early pregnancy loss occurs in 15 per cent of all diagnosed pregnancies, according to estimates from the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC).

SOGC also says after miscarriage, adverse mental-health outcomes such as PTSD occur 30 per cent of the time, and now mental-health screening is recommended for each patient.

“Complications happen way more than people know, and terrible things happen way more than people know, and we need to have the physical and medical side, but we also need to have that support side,” said Dr. Stephanie Cooper, a high-risk OB-GYN and maternal-fetal medicine specialist who also consults for PILSC.

“In some ways, it’s an uncomfortable topic for family, friends, co-workers. It’s a very isolated grief if somebody does lose a baby.”

Government funding discontinued

Yet, the Government of Alberta will no longer provide funding to PILSC.

In a letter obtained by CTV News, officials from the Ministry of Mental Health and Addiction said it sent a final payment of $240,000 in February.

Loveridge says it amounts to a 25 per cent hit to the centre’s annual budget.

In an emailed statement, the Ministry of Mental Health and Addiction said, “The main priority of a refocused health-care system is to deliver health services more effectively and efficiently.”

“When government-funded mental-health and addiction programs offer the same or similar services or do not align with our core services, such as psychiatric care, addiction treatment and medical detox services, we need to make hard decisions,” the statement read.

“We commend the Pregnancy and Infant Loss Support Centre in Calgary for their dedication, but we will not be extending their grant beyond the current term. Anyone needing support navigating mental-health supports can contact 211 or the mental-health line at 1-877-303-2642.”

‘We find hope’

Loveridge also says in the first half of 2025, PILSC has helped more than double the number of clients it saw in all of 2024.

“Without support and community care like our organization, we are going to see severe mental-health implications,” Loveridge said.

Cooper says families who experience loss while trying to grow their families are an underserved community.

“We don’t have enough services within Alberta Health Services to give the support for these families,” Cooper said.

Still, Loveridge says PILSC will carry on to provide hope for those who seek it.

“We connect to people on a heart-to-heart, human level. We find hope because we are not alone. That’s what this place really represents,” Loveridge said.

More information can be found at pilsc.org.