Rockville Centre Couple Help to Launch First NY Chapter of Nonprofit For Stillborn Education

A Rockville Centre couple recently helped to create the first New York Metro Chapter of the Star Legacy Foundation, which is focuses on stillbirth education, research and family support, after the loss of their own child last year.

Amanda and Mark Donohue lost their daughter, Jane, when Amanda was 38 weeks pregnant in February 2015 after Jane developed blood clots in utero that went undetected.

Up until that point, Amanda, a 36-year-old mother of two daughters, had an uneventful and healthy pregnancy.

“We want people to know that stillbirth happens in the twenty-first century to healthy moms,” Amanda said. “About 26,000 babies die every year, and it is believed that 75 percent of these babies likely could have been saved, but the current standard of care is not set up to detect common problems that lead to stillbirth.”

This inspired the Donohues to help start a local chapter of the foundation, which is the first affiliate outside Minnesota along with several other families.

The chapter will be offering stillbirth education programs in the New York Metro area, including sessions for doctors and nurses taught by the nation’s top experts, who will travel here to conduct the classes.

In addition, they plan to form grief support groups for families, led by parents of stillborn babies who have received special training.

“Stillbirth is still a very taboo subject in the United States, and many people are suffering in silence,” Amanda Donohue says. “We started the New York Metro Chapter of the Star Legacy Foundation because there are no organizations like it in our area. This event will bring together family and friends of stillborn babies to raise money to fund research so we can begin to change the stillbirth statistic in the United States.”

The chapter will be hosting their first 5K fundraiser in order to raise money to launch the new programs this weekend.

The event will take place this Sunday, April 17 starting at 9 a.m. at North Hempstead Beach Park on 175 W. Shore Road in Port Washington.

The event will also feature a 1.5 mile family walk that starts after the 5K and will have face painting for kids and food for participants at the event.

To sign up for the 5K or contribute to a team, visit www.letsnotbestill5K.org.

Photo caption: Amanda and Mark Donohue of Rockville Centre with their two daughters, Nora, 6, and Lucy, 4. Their third daughter, Jane, was stillborn in February 2015.

Photo courtesy of Theresa Juva