Shiyonne Chester had only three months and three days with her son, Dallas. Fifteen years after Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SUID) took him, she has created the support she searched for and never found.
Chester, who was born in Guyana and raised in Brooklyn, founded the Dallas Lamar Project this year to support families grieving pregnancy and infant loss. The group held its first meeting in October, with gatherings scheduled for the last Wednesday of each month to give parents a consistent space to share their experiences or simply listen.
Chester said family and friends surrounded her with love after Dallas died in 2011. However, it took her about five years to find a therapist. The few support resources she encountered were led by people who did not share her racial or cultural background, leaving her feeling that they could not fully understand her experience.
"I figured, I guess I gotta go build it myself," she said.
The need is large. About 3,400 babies in the United States died suddenly and unexpectedly in 2024, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Stillbirth affects about 1 in 175 births nationally, and in 2021 it occurred twice as often among Black women as among white women, the CDC reports.
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Dallas Lamar, the late son of Shiyonne Chester, lived for 3 months and 3 days before his death in 2011.Tracey Khan[/caption]
Chester said the project's mission is to offer culturally responsive support designed for Caribbean families.
The non-profit does not provide therapy. Its planned care navigation program would connect parents with therapists, psychiatric providers, doulas, and midwives, including those who want to try again after a loss. It would also point them toward dance classes and somatic yoga, because grief lives in the body as well as the mind.
"You don't have to go looking," Chester said. "You come to us and we help navigate you to these services."
She said the group also aims to loosen the silence around child loss in many West Indian families, where strength is a point of pride. Chester believed she was the only person in her family to lose a baby until relatives began sharing their own stories.
"You can be vulnerable in that moment as well," she said. "And it doesn't take away from your strength."
The work builds on years of advocacy. Chester began Dallas Day on her son's first birthday, a social media event where people wore blue and learned about SIDS. She later hosted Dallas Family Funday for about five years.
The launch falls in Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month. On Oct. 15, Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day, parents are invited to light a candle at 7 p.m. and say their children's names.
Chester said the project needs donations and partners, especially therapists who serve Black and Brown communities. She also wants families to tell her what is missing.
"We can't build something for our community because in my mind, I may think, 'OK, this is what I feel that they want,'" she said. "But that's not what they need."