Grief and Loss in the Perinatal Period

A training for Washington State providers who serve families IN Whatcom County.

Join us for a multimodal training to deepen understanding of perinatal grief and loss, build practical, trauma-informed skills to support families and provider well-being, and advance a shared community standard of compassionate care.

This training will create a compassionate space for shared learning, healing, and connection around perinatal grief and loss—honoring lived experiences, strengthening clinical and community care, and supporting the well-being of both families and providers. Together, we aim to align personal, professional, and systemic responses toward a collective standard of compassionate, equitable care.

Participants will understand the spectrum and impacts of perinatal grief and loss, including how systemic inequities shape experiences and access to care. Sessions will focus on building compassionate, trauma-informed practices for assessment, support, and referral while addressing provider impacts such as secondary trauma and moral distress. Participants will learn integrative grounding practices and identify community networks to strengthen individual care and a shared standard of care. This training is open to WA state providers who serve families in Whatcom County.

Date: Wednesday, March 18, 2026

Time: 8:30am-4:30pm PT

Cost: FREE
Lunch will be provided by Guud Bowls.

Trainers: Marquita Straus, MSW, LICSW and other panelists

Location:
PeaceHealth St. Luke’s Community Ed. Center
3333 Squalicum Pkwy, Bellingham WA 98225

Register Now

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the full spectrum of grief and loss in the perinatal period, its impact on
  individuals, family units, and communities, and how systemic inequities shape experiences
  and access.
• Identify and strengthen skills in best practices for compassionate care to build strong
  therapeutic relationships when assessing, treating, and referring perinatal individuals
  experiencing grief and loss.
• Recognize the impacts of secondary trauma, compassion fatigue, and moral distress on
  providers.
• Develop grounding and emotional regulation practices, deepen supportive supervision
  strategies, and identify community support networks that uphold grief work.
• Connect individual practice to broader systems of care and to local and regional advocacy
  in developing a community standard of care for perinatal grief and loss.

Continuing Education:

• 6.25 CEUs approved for LICSW, LMHC, LMFT.
• This Program has been approved for 6.25 CEUs for Licensed Social Workers, Mental Health Counselors and Marriage and Family Therapists by the Washington State Society for Clinical Social Work.
• 6.5 Contact Hours approved for RNs: Provider approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, Provider Number 17084 for 6.5 contact hours.

This is a live training and will not be recorded. Questions regarding the training, please email: training@perinatalsupport.org

Keynote Speaker: Marquita Straus (she/they), MSW, LICSW, is a perinatal grief and trauma therapist, death doula, and bereaved parent with over 15 years of experience supporting families through pregnancy loss and birth trauma. She is the founder of Imani’s Light, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting BIPOC families through perinatal grief and advancing compassionate, trauma-informed care.

Presented free of charge by the Whatcom Perinatal Mental Health Task Force with support from DCYF and Perinatal Support WA.