After personally walking through miscarriage, Rielly Shoemaker, Occupational Therapist, Registered and Licensed, launched a program in to meet a need in an area she found lacking. Still With Us is a program designed to support families in their time of grief after pregnancy loss.
“Still With Us is a community-based support initiative providing OT-informed grief support resources for individuals and families experiencing miscarriage and pregnancy loss. Rooted in the belief that care should extend beyond medical moments, our mission is to offer comfort, connection, and meaningful, occupation-based resources that support identity, roles, and daily life after loss.” —Rielly Shoemaker
Rielly and her husband experienced an early loss during her first pregnancy. After going through such a vulnerable and devastating time, Rielly said she “knew there was more that could be provided for moms and families going through [loss], and [she] wanted to bridge that gap.” The program launched in June of 2026.
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A large component of Still With Us is the care package Rielly thoughtfully put together. Reflecting on her own experience as well as her knowledge as an occupational therapist, Rielly designed a care package to meet the multi-faceted layers of grief a family goes through during pregnancy loss. A care package includes:
• Emotional support in the form of affirmations.
• Sensory comfort items.
• Interoception techniques to help a healing mother understand what her body is going through and what it needs during this time.
• OT informed breathing techniques to support the nervous system and other aids for anxiety.
• Routine and recovery aids backed by OT practices to help parents rediscover a sense of normalcy within daily living.
• Items to honor and memorialize the baby's life.
Rielly is excited to partner with the Little Words Project, an organization that believes in the power of words to honor, celebrate, and inspire. The Little Words Project creates beautiful, unique bracelets that each feature one word or a short phrase. The Project donated bracelets for the first ten care packages that were dropped off this month at Holland Hospital for the pilot launch of Still With Us.
Holland Hospital felt like the perfect place to start, Rielly explained. “I wanted to do Holland because it has that small town, intimate feel.” Rielly was able to connect with the Boven Birth Center’s emergency department for her pilot program. The Birth Center has an outlook and mission centered around tenderness and empowerment that Rielly hopes to emulate in Still With Us.
Holland Hospital received the first ten care packages on July 10th.
As an occupational therapist, Rielly has a highly educated view of both the mind and the body’s path to healing. “I think my OT background really is important because I can view how routines, roles, your identity, and different nervous system and regulation techniques are so important during grief. It gives me a special lens… because we’re not just doing anxiety support or mental health, those things are included. But I’m able to have the unique niche of OT [perspective that focuses on] your roles, your routines, and the occupations that you need to do every day.”
In her field of work, Rielly witnesses firsthand how overwhelming day-to-day tasks can feel for someone who is grieving. “Being able to have someone tell you this is what you need to do to help yourself can be really life-changing,” she explained. Her hope is that the care packages can help families navigate healing in this way.
Still With Us will officially become a nonprofit later this summer. Once fully established, Still With Us will be able to receive donations, and friends and family of those going through loss will be able to send the bereaved a care package. For now, care packages will be distributed through the Holland Hospital emergency department. Eventually Rielly plans to also partner with other hospitals and OBGYN practices.
Another piece of Rielly’s mission is to educate—something she’s actively doing through the Still With Us Instagram page. She quickly realized that many people don’t know how to support someone they love who is experiencing a miscarriage or pregnancy loss. For too long, pregnancy loss has been a silent suffering. Still With Us aims to provide a voice for those who are grieving as well as offer advice for those who wish to support a family.
However, Rielly’s dreams for Still With Us don’t stop there. She encourages Ottawa County to follow her social media pages to learn more about future events. In order to foster a supportive community, Rielly plans to put on events such as remembrance walks, care package assembly parties, and other in-person or virtual support gatherings. The goal: remind those who are grieving that they are not alone.
Perhaps one of the most common emotions after pregnancy loss is misplaced culpability. In Rielly’s testimony, she shared, “I was very naive... I thought: ‘I’m going to get pregnant. It’s going to be easy. I’m going to have this family that I always dreamed of…’ and then things did not turn out that way…So when I was [having a miscarriage] I thought: ‘Oh my gosh, what’s happening with me? Is my body not working correctly?’”
In her own experience, Rielly found encouragement from sharing her story with other women who have walked similar paths. “I don’t think there is a community large enough” for those experiencing pregnancy loss, “so I’m hoping that Still With Us is a start of that.”
When I asked Rielly what she would say to those experiencing loss right now, she said, “First, it’s not your fault.” This alone offers a wave of healing to so many. However, she followed it up with, “You’re going to be okay. You’re going to get through this. But your pain and your grief [are] valid and it’s okay to recognize that loss. It’s okay to talk about it. It’s okay to be sad. It’s okay to recognize and honor that life.” Because even though you won’t get to meet that child on this side of Heaven, he or she is Still With Us.
Jade Havenaar is a Holland native and a life-long lover of the lake, coffee, and a good book. She’s a former middle school teacher and a published author. After marrying the boy she met in a bar and traveling the US together, she and her husband welcomed their first born and Jade happily added “boy mom” to the list of hats she wears. When she’s not writing or changing diapers, she’s probably out adventuring with her Golden Retriever, Henry.
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