Perinatal loss changed Oneisha Perrotte-Lewis’s life when she lost her first baby during pregnancy. Like many expectant parents, she had anticipated a normal pregnancy and bringing her baby home, never imagining that she would have to say goodbye.
Yet at just 25 years old, while pregnant with her first child in 2021, what was once a “perfect” pregnancy took an unexpected turn.
“I Thought Everything Was Fine”
On the evening of April 7th, 2021, at 17 weeks pregnant, Oneisha began experiencing pain. She didn’t yet know that she was having contractions. When she noticed bleeding, she decided to go to the hospital for a second opinion.
Upon arriving, she first heard her baby’s heartbeat, the strongest it had ever sounded. Everything seemed fine. A few hours later, everything changed. She was told that her cervix had opened and that her baby would have to be born.
“I heard my baby’s heartbeat, and then they told me that I was going to lose him.”
She wasn’t prepared to give birth. Even less so to have to say goodbye to her child.
The following day, April 8th, 2021, Oneisha gave birth to her son, Jaden, well before her due date.
She had chosen to see him. She wanted to meet her baby, even under such unimaginable circumstances.
“Seeing my baby leave this world before he even had a chance to live was extremely difficult.”
Throughout this ordeal, however, she remembers the care team as attentive and deeply compassionate. The CHUM staff gave her the time and space to grieve and to accompany her baby with dignity and respect.
Turning grief into Support for Others
After Jaden’s death, Oneisha quickly felt the need to do something for families going through the same experience.
She founded the Little Bean Foundation, an organization dedicated to supporting parents who experience pregnancy loss or the loss of a baby. The name refers to the affectionate nickname she gave her own baby: her “little bean.”
Through her organization, she provides comfort boxes at the CHUM, organizes activities, events, education and sends cards to parents around the world to mark the anniversary of a baby’s passing or simply remind them that someone is thinking of their child. She also became a certified bereavement doula and has written books on grief.
For Oneisha, helping others has become a way to keep her son’s memory alive and a way to stay connected to him.
“This is how I can continue to raise and grieve my son. By doing these things in his honour, I feel like I’m keeping him alive.”
By creating her foundation, Oneisha has transformed her personal experience into meaningful, tangible support for other families. The organization reminds parents that their baby continues to hold a place in their memories and in the hearts of their community.
A New Pregnancy, a Different Reality
Five years after losing her son, Jaden, Oneisha experienced another pregnancy, one marked by an overwhelming mix of love, hope, and fear of miscarriage.
When they learned they were having another boy, there was an unexpected sense of relief. It felt like Oneisha and her partner were being given the opportunity to experience some of the moments she never got to have with Jaden. She knows she would have loved a daughter just as deeply, and that journey would have held its own beautiful joy, but having another boy felt different. It felt familiar.
This time, Oneisha knew she would need care from specialists in high-risk pregnancies. From the very beginning, her cervix was monitored regularly. Then, at 19 weeks, doctors found that it had opened further and had to perform an emergency cerclage.
There were hospital stays, bedrest, uncertainty, and so many moments when they weren’t sure what would happen next.
“Somehow, we kept being given another chance to make it through another day, reach another milestone, and keep fighting for the little boy we already loved so deeply. That is where his name came from. “Chance” because this pregnancy gave us so many chances, and ultimately, the chance to bring him home.”
She was also carrying an emotion that was difficult to put into words: she was happy to be expecting this child while continuing to grieve the one she had lost.
“Chance has brought an incredible amount of joy into all of our lives. He has brought new smiles, new love, a new appreciation for life, new memories, and a happiness that can exist alongside the grief we will always carry. Because as much as we adore Chance, we will forever miss Jaden. We will always wonder about the firsts we should have experienced with our firstborn and what it would have been like to watch our two boys grow up together.”
Breaking the Isolation of Grieving Parents
For many families, perinatal loss comes with a sense of isolation, particularly when those around them don’t know how to approach such a difficult experience. Oneisha’s story highlights the importance of acknowledging parents’ grief and providing spaces where they can share their experiences.
Her story also tells of how she chose to turn this loss into something positive by creating a space where parents who have experienced a miscarriage at the CHUM and elsewhere can be heard, supported, and, above all, feel less alone.
