The Girona City Council inaugurated the Perinatal, Gestational, and Neonatal Grief Space at the municipal cemetery on Thursday afternoon. The facility is intended for the support and solace of families who have lost a baby during pregnancy, childbirth, or the first year of life.
The space has been operational since 2022 but had not had an official inauguration until now. This formalization took place on Thursday alongside the entities Bressols, A Contracor, and Dones Republicanes, which had requested a public ceremony from the council to raise awareness of a grief that is also commemorated every October 15th.
The space opened in 2022 and received its official inauguration three years later
Representatives from these three local entities and families who have gone through this process attended the event. The inauguration was held at the municipal cemetery, where the council designated this specific area for perinatal, gestational, and neonatal losses.
During the opening, the facility incorporated a Jizo statue, installed at the request of the associations. The figure, characteristic of Japanese Buddhist tradition, symbolizes the protection of children and is associated with the support and comfort of families facing this type of death.
"Today we complete a project initiated in the previous term and which the entities asked us to give this formal inauguration. As someone who has had to navigate, and still navigates, perinatal grief, I am proud to fulfill what these entities, so important for supporting families, ask for" - Lluc Salellas i Vilar, Mayor of Girona
The mayor thus framed the inauguration as the institutional closure of an already ongoing project. In his speech, he also linked the event to his personal experience with perinatal grief.
Girona holds two annual events at the facility with local entities
The relationship between the City Council and the associations is not limited to Thursday's inauguration. Every October 15th, the council and Bressols, A Contracor, and Dones Republicanes jointly commemorate the World Awareness Day for Perinatal, Gestational, and Neonatal Grief.
Additionally, the city council lays flowers each year in this same space during the remembrance ceremony for the deceased on All Saints' Day. The facility is thus integrated into two annual remembrance events linked to families who have suffered these losses.
The inauguration this Thursday also incorporated the Jizo statue, requested by local entities as a symbol of protection for children in the Perinatal, Gestational, and Neonatal Grief Space of the municipal cemetery.