On a sidetable in the hallway of Scott and Hana Baker's home sits a small memorial of an event too difficult for most parents to even momentarily contemplate.
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A photograph of the couple's daughters Florence and Aoife is on the table, surrounded by cards, candles and toy bears. In the picture, Scott and Hana and their two-year-old daughter Honora look down on the tiny children in a basket-lined crib.
Florence and Aoife were stillborn.
Six months later, the Bakers are still raw in their grief enduring the loss of their daughters, who were identical twins. It's a pain that any compassionate person might feel uncomfortable intruding on - but Hana and Scott are inviting others to share what they are experiencing, in the hope it may open a conversation about neonatal death and the need for research.
To that end, Scott and the employees of his construction business are taking part in the Beards of Hope initiative, which encourages men to grow a beard over winter and then shave it off in September.
It's part of the Bears of Hope Pregnancy and Infant Loss Support program, where families going through the trauma of loss are supported by other bereaved families, receiving a toy bear which represents a whole array of services the program provides to those who have lost a child at birth, including parent-led, psychologist-facilitated support groups, private online groups, phone and email counselling and annual community events.
"Hana noticed this group and called to raise money and awareness for stillbirth and infant loss at the end of June," Scott Baker says.
"We had received a care package from this organisation called Bears of Hope, who are running this campaign. We decided to get on board and so far have raised $4000. We set a goal of $1000 and that was set in about 10 minutes."
At the time of this story being written the Baker's Bear of Hope campaign has raised over $5000 of a $7000 target.
More importantly, the campaign has given the Bakers the facility to talk to others who have suffered the same loss.
"We have friends this has happened to as well; it's good to talk to them about it," Hana Baker says.
"Getting it out there is part of it. When things are uncomfortable, people avoid talking about it. When you do something positive like this in the names of your children, it stops things being negative and sad."
The Bakers have found themselves being approached by people outside their immediate friends. For some it might seem an intrusion, but Scott says it's given them the impetus to seek answers to questions they have about a subject not widely understood.
"Obviously when it happened a lot of people come to you afterwards," Scott says.
"As Hana says, we had a couple of close friends that this has happened to as well, but since then there has been a lot of people tell us their stories, whether it's a miscarriage or something further along."
"A big part of the Beards of Hope is that it's for men, it's an avenue for men," Hana adds.
"A lot of females have come to me... do you think you've had more men come to speak to you than you would have thought, people you work with?" Hana asks her husband.
"Yes, certainly I've had a couple of colleagues that, once we started sharing it on our Facebook page, came forward," Scott says.
"One had a nephew that had passed away, which we wouldn't have known about if we hadn't put this out there."
To talk about the death of a child at birth was taboo in the past, but the Bakers want to put themselves forward.
"I think we're prepared for that," Scott says.
"I'm heavily involved in a football club. (He is vice-president of Waubra). The first game after we started football again, we had a whole day dedicated to them, the club wore white armbands. It's been public to a certain degree."
As to what actually happened with Aoife and Florence's death, the Bakers are still waiting on a definitive answer. They know it may not exist.
"It was something to do with them being identical; something happened to one and the other has passed away because of that," Scott Baker says.
"The autopsy was inconclusive."
"I think that's part of this as well," Hana adds.
"I don't know all of the statistics but many people don't get an answer. For us, we don't have a conclusive answer as to what happened, but we have a fair idea. Something happened to one of their cords and their identical twin connection caused them both to die.
"But part of the stigma is that - I think more than 50 per cent (of people whose children die at birth in Australia) don't actually know what happened. There's not a lot of research and until you're in this world, you don't realise there's not that much being done about it.
"That's where organisations like Bears of Hope running these campaigns will hopefully in the future see more money going towards research, so that families like us can have an answer."
The community that is growing around Hana and Scott has provided them with new perspectives as well.
"I've connected with people online throughout the world, people this has happened to - other people in Ballarat, not just our friends, have reached out," Hana says.
"It's a bit staggering, with all the medical advancement, it's kind of accepted that babies die, and they die before they are born. People go, 'Oh that happens, that's really sad, you're so unlucky,' and they don't want to talk about it anymore. It's almost accepted as part of life - 'Oh you'll have another baby.'
"Having other people to talk to, and knowing we're not the only ones that kind of thing gets said to - hopefully with more awareness will come more research."
Hana says her research led her to find six babies a day are stillborn in Australia. Miscarriage, stillbirth and neonatal death charity Sands says an estimated one in four pregnancies (93,000) ends in miscarriage in Australia each year. Approximately 2,500 babies are either stillborn or die in the first 28 days after birth.
"It's more common than you think. That's just stillbirths, not miscarriages. That's a lot. We're the third in Scott's friendship group that go and visit our babies at the cemetery."
For Scott and Hana Baker, the enormity of their grief is still of course present and raw.
"For me, I think it comes and goes," Hana says.
"Different things and times... we've just gone past the six-month mark for them, so that's tricky.
"I feel like I'm pretty good for a few weeks, then I'll have a couple of days where I'm not so great. At the start I'd have a bad day, then a good day, then a bad day and a good day. Now it's getting more towards more good days."
"There are triggers I suppose," Scott concurs.
"Hana sent me a picture of Honora when she was a little baby, a video. You look at that and you go, 'We should be looking at that for our girls now.' Things like that. I threw myself into work I suppose. If I didn't have two of my best mates go through it and talk to me, I wouldn't have spoken to anyone. No one really understands other than people who've gone through it," he says.
For more on neonatal death and stillbirth, Sands is available 24/7
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