About CLIMB

We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Anchorage, Alaska, serving families and others throughout the United States, Canada, and beyond. Our mission is, and always has been, to provide parent-to-parent support for all of us who have experienced the death of one or more of our twins or higher multiple birth children at any time from conception through birth, or in infancy and early childhood. It is also to assist extended families, caregivers, twins and multiples organizations, and others who are seeking to understand and support the needs of parents with a multiple birth loss. While it is not officially in our mission, we have come to believe in the importance of more education of the public on the risks and realities of multiple births, and how often they include tragedy and grief – and the importance of prevention of multiple birth loss.

Our founder is Jean Kollantai, whose fraternal twin son Andrew died a few days before their due date, after a good pregnancy, in April 1986. (His surviving brother, Berney, is our webmaster, and their brother Alex was born 22 months later.) In early 1987, Jean began to search for others who had lost a twin and soon was hearing from parents of multiple birth loss from around the United States, Canada, and beyond. She put together the first issue of Our Newsletter for them in December 1987, and then heard from many more. Though we didn’t know it then, our group began at the time of the boom in fertility technology, as well as twins and higher multiples being diagnosed more routinely and earlier through ultrasound. Jean met Patti Dubler, a local twins club activist and childbirth educator who was deeply concerned with loss and truly able to relate, and they began to develop multiple birth loss support for the Anchorage Parents of Twins and Multiples Club. Jean and Patti soon met Lisa Fleischer, whose twin son Teddy – born on their due date weighing over 8# – died of the effects of a prolapsed cord when he was 10 days old. (His surviving twin Sophie is now a mom herself, and has an older sister and younger brother.) Lisa, along with Patti, has been a totally and truly indispensable support to Jean and to CLIMB all these years, and also was the coordinator and facilitator of Parents Reaching Out, the Anchorage-based infant loss support group for many years. Lisa and Jean sadly soon met Becky Crandall, whose twin daughters Julia and Emily were stillborn at 37 weeks along from no known cause. (Like Jean’s, her twins were her first children at age 37.) Becky is an artist who provided the hand-drawn graphics for our newsletter, and our logo, along with thoughtful input on issues about complete loss. (Her subsequent sons are now grown.) We were fortunate to locate some professionals around the country and in Canada and England who were concerned with multiple birth loss and also encouraged us to form an ongoing organization. These included Elizabeth Bryan MD, Sr. Jane Marie Lamb, “Miss Helen”, Dr. Louis Keith, and Sheryl McInnes, as well as twin authors and activists Patricia Malmstrom and Elizabeth Noble.

Over the years CLIMB has served, we estimate, somewhere well over 15,000 families in some way.

Our group includes first-time parents (often, after many years of trying) and some who have many older children…teenagers and new moms who are over 50…married and single parents, some LGBTQ+ families…company presidents, attorneys, and doctors, and people who are on state assistance, and stay-at-home moms…some who have no living children and others who have many…many who also have living multiples from another pregnancy…some who have deep religious beliefs, including other-than-Christian ones, and others who are completely secular…parents whose loss is more than 40 years ago, and others for whom it is “now”. We are all here because of our common bond, and the opportunity to share with others in what is now a community for multiple birth loss. Each of us contributes what we can and takes what we need to and that makes sense to us, while coping and trying to heal and face the ongoing challenges – each of us in our own way, in our own situation, but while knowing we are not alone and that our babies and children matter.

Our history

We have made a number of presentations about multiple birth loss support to conferences and organizations in the U.S. and beyond, such as twins and multiples organizations and organizations related to premature birth, including the conference of the National Association of Perinatal Social Workers in April 2006 (Jean Kollantai and Elizabeth Pector MD). Jean made a presentation on support for multiple birth loss parents at the 9th International Workshop on Multiple Pregnancy in Herzliya, Israel, in 1994, and to the first-ever Bereavement Symposium at the 10th Congress of the International Society for Twin Studies in London in 2001. Jean and CLIMB member Alice Check presented at the SIDS International Conference in Edmonton, Alberta, in 2004. Jean and Dr. Pector presented at the 12th International Congress on Twin Studies in Gent, Belgium, in June 2007. We have appreciated networking with many professionals and parents involved in multiple births, infant and child loss support, and related areas. Articles by Jean and Lisa have appeared in a number of publications, as well as quotes and other input from CLIMB in many articles about loss in multiple birth. Jean was featured in Twins Magazine as a trailblazer in the world of multiples. She was a member of the Advisory Boards of National SHARE Pregnancy and Infant Loss Support, and Multiples Births Canada/NmC, and was a founding board member of the Pregnancy Loss and Infant Death Alliance. Jean recently completed her Master of Social Work Degree. Lisa has recently completed ten years as a hospice bereavement coordinator.

During these years, we had some large local or regional gatherings organized by CLIMB members. Some of these were in New Jersey, New York City, Sayre PA/Waverly NY, Maryland, Washington DC, Atlanta/Marietta GA, Minneapolis, Seattle, St. Louis, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, and Seattle. We also maintained a very lengthy parent contact list for members and new members to be able to be in touch with each other by mail or phone, or in person. (Speaking of mail, we sometimes received as many as 30 personal postal letters in a single day.)(And 6 or 7 phone calls in a day was not uncommon.)

Our Newsletter was published in print every three months from December 1987 until May 2018, usually with about 30 pages of personal stories, articles, and news, plus special issues. The newsletter and all our activities – including also distributing print materials on loss in multiple birth from our bibliography – were developed in the days before the internet –– all of this was what it took to do what was needed!

We have always been a completely volunteer organization, and any of our staffing and funding comes from voluntary donations by bereaved parents and relatives, caring professionals, and twins and multiples organizations.

What about local groups?

Unfortunately CLIMB does not have local chapters. This is because to develop their activities and be legally responsible for them would take at least a full-time staff position here that we just don’t have. It is very important to have multiple birth loss support at the local level, in individual contacts or in gatherings, and we really encourage our members to try to start something and then we’d support them in any way that we can. Our article Forming a Local Multiple Birth Loss Support Group is posted here with some information and ideas.