From lived experience to systems change
Every number represents a baby.
Every baby represents a family.
LaSaaun Lives Foundation was born from loss, but our work does not end with remembrance.
- We remember
- We educate
- We advocate
- We support
- We work toward prevention
Stillbirth is not rare
A stillbirth is the loss of a baby at 20 weeks of pregnancy or later. It happens to far more families than most people realize.
Reported count · 2024
Calculated · from the reported rate of 5.44 per 1,000
Calculated · 2024 count ÷ 366 days
The burden is not shared equally. In 2024, the stillbirth rate among non-Hispanic Black women was 10.00 per 1,000, about 2.2 times the rate among non-Hispanic White women (4.55). The highest rate, 10.21, was among Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander women.
That is why health equity is part of our mission. Race itself is not the cause. Unequal access to quality care, differences in how care is delivered and experienced, bias within health systems, social and economic conditions, and chronic stress can all play a part. No single factor explains every loss, and a gap this persistent is a call to action, not an explanation to accept.
Source: CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Fetal Mortality: United States, 2024, National Vital Statistics Reports Vol. 75, No. 6 (September 10, 2026), final data. Stillbirth here means fetal death at 20 weeks of gestation or more; rates are per 1,000 live births and fetal deaths. "1 in 184," "≈ 54 per day" and "2.2 times" are our calculations from the reported figures.
In California, 2024
Reported count · 2024
Reported rate · 2024
Calculated · 2024 count ÷ 366 days
Progress matters. So does every family still represented by these numbers.
Source: CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Fetal Mortality: United States, 2024, National Vital Statistics Reports Vol. 75, No. 6 (September 10, 2026), Table 7. Explore California's own data on the California Department of Public Health Fetal Mortality page.
National numbers. Local families.
San Francisco is home to families navigating pregnancy, loss, recovery and the search for answers. The national and California figures above provide important context, but they do not replace a verified San Francisco-specific count.
Our commitment here is personal and practical: listen to families, connect them with support, bring fathers and partners into the conversation, and advocate for care that is respectful, responsive and equitable.
For county-level data, consult the California Department of Public Health fetal mortality resources. We do not present an unverified San Francisco count.
But our why has a name.
LaSaaun Jarell Tyiska Smith
On April 22, 2020, our family experienced the stillbirth of our son, LaSaaun.
His life changed ours.
This page is not here to retell his whole story. His story lives throughout this Foundation. This is where we show what his life moved us to do.
Two parents. Two perspectives. One commitment.
La'Zette Smith
La'Zette has often served as the Foundation's public voice on panels, at symposiums and conferences, and in advisory and advocacy spaces, carrying a father's grief into rooms where fathers are rarely heard.
Nikia Armstrong-Smith
Nikia's maternal voice and lived experience remain part of the foundation of this work, including pregnancy and infant loss advocacy and advocacy for California AB 1697.
Sometimes they entered the room together. Sometimes one carried the family's voice into the room. The work has always belonged to both.
How remembrance became advocacy
Our advocacy did not begin with a plan. It began with a family willing to say LaSaaun's name in rooms where decisions about care, research and policy are made. Each year built on the last. Open any year for the details and the record behind it.
Remembrance → Education → Advocacy → Prevention → Systems change
2021Lived Experience Enters the Clinical & Research ConversationUC San Diego Symposium on Pregnancy and Perinatal Loss: La'Zette's recorded tribute carries LaSaaun's story into the closingProgression From family experience toward the clinical and research conversation.Explore 2021
Second Annual Symposium on Pregnancy and Perinatal Loss · June 26, 2021
La'Zette Smith · Recorded closing tributeAt the symposium hosted by the UC San Diego Center for Perinatal Discovery, La'Zette contributed a recorded closing tribute sharing LaSaaun's story and our family's experience of loss.
UC San Diego thanked La'Zette for sharing the family's experience and described its value to clinicians, researchers and families affected by loss.
2022Parent Voice Becomes Education & AdvocacyStar Legacy Foundation — Parent Panel for Healthcare Providers: La'Zette and Nikia invited to share LaSaaun's storyLa'Zette and Nikia speak in support of California AB 1697Progression From sharing our story toward advocating for families in policy conversations.Explore 2022
Star Legacy Foundation — Parent Panel for Healthcare Providers · March 18, 2022
La'Zette Smith & Nikia Armstrong-SmithStar Legacy Foundation invited La'Zette and Nikia to share LaSaaun's story and our family's experience of stillbirth with healthcare professionals, with a focus on compassionate communication and bereavement care for families after loss.
California Assembly Bill 1697
La'Zette Smith & Nikia Armstrong-SmithLa'Zette and Nikia joined an advocacy call in support of AB 1697 and spoke on behalf of families affected by stillbirth. Introduced in January 2022, AB 1697 proposed a state income-tax credit to help families with unreimbursed medical and burial or cremation costs following a stillbirth. The measure was not enacted. Read the bill
2023Father & Family Voice Enters Black Maternal and Infant HealthPanel speaker, San Francisco Black Infant Health Call to ActionStar Legacy Foundation — Live Parent Panel for NursesStar Legacy Foundation — Recorded Parent Panel Education SeriesProgression From pregnancy and infant loss advocacy toward the Black maternal and infant health conversation.Explore 2023
Call to Action to Heal African American Mothers and Their Families · May 2023
La'Zette SmithLa'Zette joined the San Francisco Black Infant Health conference panel as a speaker, bringing a father's experience of loss into a conversation about Black maternal and infant health.
The Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health Section thanked La'Zette for participating on the Black Infant Health conference panel and sharing his story.
Star Legacy Foundation — Live Parent Panel for Nurses · August 10, 2023
La'Zette Smith · Parent panelistLa'Zette spoke on Star Legacy Foundation's live parent panel for nurses, bringing a father's perspective on pregnancy and infant loss and on what compassionate care means for grieving families.
Organizers thanked La'Zette for his participation in the nursing education panel.
Star Legacy Foundation — Recorded Parent Panel Education Series · September 2023
La'Zette Smith & Nikia Armstrong-SmithLa'Zette and Nikia coordinated with Star Legacy Foundation on a recorded parent-experience contribution for its on-demand education series for healthcare professionals.
2024Grief, Mental Health & Father InclusionGrieving Fathers, Pregnancy Loss & Mental Health panelKaiser Permanente San Francisco virtual panelFirst Wings of Remembrance — Lake Merritt, OaklandProgression From a father's grief toward father inclusion and community healing.Explore 2024
Grieving Fathers, Pregnancy Loss & Mental Health · Panel
La'Zette Smith · Panel speakerLa'Zette served as a panel speaker on pregnancy loss, paternal grief and mental health, speaking to:
- the silence that surrounds grieving fathers
- losing LaSaaun, and becoming a father, partner and advocate
- centering men in conversations about pregnancy loss and mental health
- Strong & Silent and tools for healing
- how grief can become community impact
Kaiser Permanente San Francisco · Virtual panel
La'Zette Smith · PanelistLa'Zette took part in a Kaiser Permanente San Francisco virtual panel, sharing a father's perspective.
Correspondence with Kaiser Permanente San Francisco concerned the panel recording.
First Wings of Remembrance · Lake Merritt, Oakland
Families impacted by pregnancy and infant loss gathered for the first Wings of Remembrance. Wings of Remembrance is presented by Butterfly Hyve. LaSaaun Lives Foundation is the charitable organization supporting this work.
2025Building Our Own TablesSan Francisco Black Infant Health — “Improving Maternal Health and Mental Well-Being” — June 26Healthy Birth Day, Inc. — Empowering Change: Advancing Maternal Health Together — October 30Second Wings of Remembrance — Alameda BeachProgression From participating at other tables toward creating spaces of our own.Explore 2025
San Francisco Black Infant Health Call to Action · June 26, 2025
La'Zette Smith · PanelistLa'Zette spoke on the panel “Improving Maternal Health and Mental Well-Being,” including discussion of Strong & Silent, continuing to bring a father's voice into Black maternal and infant health.
Healthy Birth Day, Inc. — Empowering Change: Advancing Maternal Health Together · October 30, 2025
La'Zette Smith · PanelistAt the maternal health symposium presented by Healthy Birth Day, Inc. and Des Moines University, La'Zette joined the session “Strength in Support: How Personal and Community Partnerships Improve Maternal & Infant Outcomes,” bringing a father's and partner's perspective to maternal and infant health.
Second Wings of Remembrance · Alameda Beach
Wings of Remembrance returned for its second gathering. Wings of Remembrance is presented by Butterfly Hyve. LaSaaun Lives Foundation is the charitable organization supporting this work.
Butterfly Hyve creates intentional spaces where mothers and families feel seen, heard, supported and held. Its work brings care, education, healing, connection and advocacy together across pregnancy, parenthood and life after loss.
2026From Remembrance to PreventionKaiser Permanente San Francisco — Black Maternal Health Week: “From Bump to Birth and Beyond” — April 16Congressional Roundtable: Innovative Solutions to the U.S. Stillbirth Crisis — September 16Wave of Light San Francisco and CBS Bay Area coverage — October 15Progression From remembrance toward prevention and systems change.Explore 2026
Kaiser Permanente San Francisco · Black Maternal Health Week · April 16, 2026
La'Zette Smith · PanelistLa'Zette joined Kaiser Permanente San Francisco's Black Maternal Health Week panel, themed “From Bump to Birth and Beyond.” The conversation centered fatherhood perspectives, Black maternal health, family inclusion and the importance of fathers' presence during pregnancy, birth and beyond.
Measure the Placenta podcast · August 2026
La'Zette Smith · Podcast guestLa'Zette shared LaSaaun's story and the family advocacy that grew from his life in a recorded conversation about stillbirth and prevention.
Congressional Roundtable: Innovative Solutions to the U.S. Stillbirth Crisis · U.S. Capitol · September 16, 2026
La'Zette Smith and Nikia Armstrong-Smith · Family advocatesHeld at the U.S. Capitol, the roundtable included family lived-experience perspectives on stillbirth prevention. La'Zette and Nikia brought LaSaaun's story and our family's experience into the conversation as part of national stillbirth prevention advocacy in Washington, DC.
Wave of Light San Francisco · Baker Beach · October 15, 2026
Families gathered at Baker Beach to honor babies gone too soon, speak their names and carry their light forward. CBS Bay Area documented the gathering and shared families' stories of remembrance, healing and awareness. Read the CBS story
Where our focus is now
Our work now reaches toward prevention: stillbirth prevention, maternal health, father inclusion, healthcare engagement and community education, alongside remembrance, awareness and family resources.
Remembrance was where we began, not where we stopped
Prevention & education
Families deserve reliable information before a crisis, not only resources afterward.
Whole-family care
Maternal wellness and father engagement are not competing missions. Support should recognize mothers, fathers, partners and families while keeping the pregnant person's health, dignity and experience centered.
Our guiding principle: Presence Is the Intervention™. Showing up, and staying present, is part of how families heal.
Advocacy & systems change
Families affected by disparities and loss deserve representation wherever healthcare, research, public health and policy decisions affecting them are made.
An honest word about prevention. Not every stillbirth can be prevented, and many families never receive a complete explanation for their loss. That does not mean nothing can be done. Evidence-based education, responsive prenatal care, awareness of changes in a baby's movement, and timely evaluation when something feels different may help identify concerns and reduce some preventable losses.
We entered this work through remembrance. Experience taught us that remembrance must also lead to education, advocacy and opportunities for prevention.
Prevention starts with information, presence and responsive care
Rooted in Strength™ helps fathers and partners learn how to support a healthy pregnancy, recognize concerns, listen to the pregnant person's experience and help seek timely care. We connect families to education developed by organizations working in different areas of stillbirth prevention, research and support.
Count the Kicks® · Know baby's movement patterns
A program of Healthy Birth Day, Inc., Count the Kicks teaches expectant parents to track their baby's normal movement patterns daily in the third trimester using a free app or paper chart. Changes in movement or strength deserve prompt evaluation—not waiting until the next appointment.
PUSH for Empowered Pregnancy · Education and systems change
PUSH works to end preventable stillbirth through parent and provider education, advocacy, improved prenatal-care protocols and equitable, responsive care. Its work includes attention to altered fetal movement, fetal growth concerns, placental monitoring and healthcare-provider training.
Star Legacy Foundation · Safer pregnancy and family support
Star Legacy provides safer-pregnancy education, research and professional learning alongside support for families after loss and during pregnancy after loss. Its Safe Sleep in Pregnancy guidance discusses going to sleep on your side in the third trimester. It also shares infant safe-sleep guidance for after birth; these are distinct topics.
Measure the Placenta · Placental health research and advocacy
Measure the Placenta shares research on placental size and adverse pregnancy outcomes and advocates for measuring and monitoring placental growth during pregnancy. Estimated Placental Volume is an area of ongoing research and advocacy, not a universally established prenatal-care standard.
How fathers and partners can help: Learn together, make room for questions, take changes or concerns seriously, help arrange care promptly and support the pregnant person's decisions and voice. The pregnant person should never have to carry the responsibility for prevention alone.
Not every stillbirth can be prevented. No family is ever to blame. These resources support conversations with qualified healthcare professionals; they do not replace individual medical advice.
Explore the Rooted in Strength™ Father & Family Resource Hub
These are descriptions of each organization's publicly available work, not claims that the organizations jointly operate or endorse this page.
Every part of our work answers a need we saw
We did not start with a list of programs. Each part of our work grew from a need we saw, first in our own family and then in the families around us.
Mothers and families need to feel seen, heard, supported and held
Butterfly Hyve
Maternal & family wellness · Remembrance · Community
Fathers often grieve in silence
Strong & Silent Fathers
Fatherhood support, grief and healing, wellness, family presence and development.
Partners need preparation, too
Rooted in Strength™
Pregnancy and postpartum education and resources for fathers and families.
Families after loss need a place to gather
Wings of Remembrance
Presented by Butterfly Hyve. An annual gathering for families impacted by pregnancy and infant loss.
Loss deserves to be spoken aloud
Wave of Light San Francisco
Remembrance and public awareness.
A future where
Everything on this page points toward five outcomes. We measure our work by whether families are closer to them.
- Families receive clear, evidence-informed pregnancy and stillbirth-prevention education before tragedy occurs.
- Mothers receive respectful, equitable and responsive care.
- Fathers and partners are prepared to support pregnancy, postpartum recovery, loss and family wellness.
- Families experiencing pregnancy or infant loss are not left to navigate grief alone.
- Communities disproportionately affected by maternal and infant health disparities are represented in healthcare, research, public health and policy conversations.
Lived experience is knowledge, not an afterthought.
This is why we do it.
Not for statistics alone. Not for recognition.
We do it because LaSaaun lived.
Because thousands of babies and families are represented by the numbers on this page. Because families deserve support before, during and beyond birth.
- We remember.
- We educate.
- We advocate.
- We support.
- We work toward prevention.
Carry the light forward.
Turn why into action
Sources
- National Center for Health Statistics. Fetal Mortality: United States, 2024. National Vital Statistics Reports, Vol. 75, No. 6, September 10, 2026 (final 2024 data). National figures from the abstract and Table 2; California figures from Table 7. "1 in 184" (1,000 ÷ 5.44), daily figures (annual count ÷ 366) and the rate ratio (10.00 ÷ 4.55) calculated by LaSaaun Lives Foundation.
- California Department of Public Health. Fetal Mortality.
- California Legislature. AB 1697 (2021–2022 Regular Session).