Chicago Bears safety Eddie Jackson supports families who experience perinatal loss as part of NFL's My Cause My Cleats

Four months ago, Jennie Goosby and Tony Bakken were faced with the unthinkable loss of their infant daughter Charlotte Olivia, born 14 weeks early.

Chicago Bears safety Eddie Jackson knows a similar pain having experienced pregnancy loss.

As part of the My Cause My Cleats initiative, Jackson supports families like Goosby and Bakken, who were invite to the Dec. 4 game to shed light on their grief and the resources available for families who experience infant and pregnancy loss or other perinatal crises.

Jackson has chosen to support Advocate Health Care's Share Pregnancy and Infant Loss Support program - a resource that Goosby and Bakken say gives them much-needed support.

The program includes monthly support groups, memory boxes, remembrance events, financial support and other resources to families who experience infant or pregnancy loss or have a critically ill infant. These resources begin in the hospital, but extend in the days, months and years following the loss.

Goosby and Bakken said they started going to Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital's Share support group a month after losing their daughter, Charlotte, who lived about two hours after she was born in the early morning hours of Aug. 4.

Despite a healthy pregnancy so far, the couple learned at a 20-week ultrasound of a rare complication that caused Goosby's water to break early. After further monitoring, Goosby had to go to the hospital at 26 weeks, where she experienced dangerously high blood pressure and had to deliver Charlotte just a few days later.

The Oakbrook Terrace couple said they've met others in the group who have been a part of Share for years.

"To me, that's the biggest benefit," Bakken said. "To be around people who know what we're going through."

Goosby said there can be a silence around infant loss and miscarriage.

While some families might not feel comfortable sharing, "I can't imagine sitting with this by ourselves."

And even with supportive family and friends, the Share group has been integral to navigating the grief around losing Charlotte, she added.

"The beautiful thing about Share is that we have families who have been coming for over a decade, and also ones like Goosby and Bakken who have had a recent loss," said Jessica Kincaid, perinatal support group coordinator who leads Good Samaritan Hospital's Share group. "They all continue to support each other even though their stories are different and unique."

The couple said they wanted to attend the game to speak out for couples who may have also experienced this loss and don't know where to turn.

There are resources like Share available to help.

Read more about Share and the Advocate Aurora Health Foundation at www.advocateaurorahealth.org/foundations/where-to-give/ and find ways to help the cause.