In a quiet Ocala workspace, volunteers are cutting apart donated wedding dresses and stitching the satin and lace into something far more somber: burial garments for babies who are stillborn or die shortly after birth. The nonprofit behind the effort, Angels Above Baby Gowns, hands the finished packages out at no cost to grieving families and hospitals around the country.
The organization transforms donated wedding dresses into burial garments for infants lost to stillbirth or early death, according to FOX 35 Orlando. It was founded in 2014 by Dawn Corey, a retired fashion designer and seamstress who started the group after learning about a neonatal intensive care unit nurse who had cut up her own wedding dress to clothe a stillborn baby, the station reports.
Each finished bundle can include more than just a gown. Per FOX 35's reporting, a completed package may contain a burial gown, a blanket, a hat, booties, an angel ornament, a card, and matching bracelets for the mother and baby. Volunteers cut, sew and crochet the donated fabric into garments sized from premature to full-term, so a family can choose something that fits their baby, however small.
A Nationwide Reach From a Small Ocala Workshop
The scale of the group's work is reported differently depending on the source. Dawn Corey told WCJB that the nonprofit has made more than 100,000 packages that are donated to hospitals locally and across the country. FOX 35, however, reports a different figure, stating the nonprofit has distributed an estimated 30,000 burial packages since its 2014 founding and noting it also has a chapter in Michigan. The two outlets do not reconcile the discrepancy, and it is not clear whether the numbers reflect different measures, such as packages made versus packages distributed.
Corey told WESH the organization's reach extends deep into the hospital system, saying, “we are in so many hospitals, at least 700 hospitals in the United States.” A separate report from the Chronicle of the weeklies described a plan to send packages from Ocala to hospitals throughout Florida in the near future, with intentions of eventually branching out to other states, though that account describes a plan rather than a confirmed expansion.
Why the Need Is Greater Than Many Realize
The scope of infant loss nationally and globally helps explain why groups like Angels Above Baby Gowns have found steady need for their work. According to the March of Dimes, as cited by WESH, one in every 275 pregnancies ends in stillbirth. Worldwide, the World Health Organization estimates nearly 2 million stillbirths occur every year, or one every 16 seconds, per the same WESH report.
Ocala's volunteers are not alone in this particular kind of sewing. A separate organization, NICU Helping Hands, runs its own Angel Gown® Program, which it says began in 2013 to support families who had lost a baby. That group says it distributes donated wedding gowns to more than 180 seamstresses across the United States, who convert them into garments, and that it provides the finished Angel Gowns free of charge to any hospital or family that requests them.
Back in Ocala, the mission remains rooted in the same idea that launched the group more than a decade ago: that a dress once meant for a wedding day can become something that offers comfort on one of the hardest days a family will ever face. The burial gowns, as FOX 35 Orlando's reporting frames it, provide comfort to families grieving the loss of an infant, one donated dress and one careful stitch at a time.
