I would like to respond to Janet M. Kumar’s Aug. 7 letter “Recognize stillborn” regarding a birth certificate for her stillborn child.

In 1971, I delivered a stillborn girl. When I read in The Journal more than a year ago that the state was considering giving out certificates for stillborns, I was very excited. This was something I desperately needed.

In those days, stillborns were treated as though they were just defective babies and we were all told to just get over it — that we’d have more. Well, it doesn’t work that way. No matter how many you have or don’t have, you still miss the child you carried.

All that the mothers of stillborn children need to do is contact the hospital where their child was delivered. My delivery was at Beverly Hospital, in Massachusetts, and the people I spoke to were very kind and directed me to the person I needed to speak to in order to get my certificate.

It took four weeks but I have a certificate of stillbirth with my daughter’s name on it, and after all this time it is such a comfort.

DEBORAH LEIGHTON

Coventry