Halifax's IWK children's hospital is reviewing some of the wording it uses in its fundraising campaigns after issues were raised by a Prince Edward Island woman.

'We probably need to modify some of the wording that we use.'— Robbie Shaw, IWK Health Centre Foundation

Bonnie Stewart, whose son died four years ago at the IWK, told CBC News the language the hospital uses in its fundraising letters is hurtful for parents whose children died there.

"In the mailouts, they use phrases like, 'She never gave up.' And obviously the logical conclusion from that is, well, my poor wimpy kid did," said Stewart.

"It's the value judgment that that places on the plucky survivor, or the miracle, or the person who is lucky, that I object to."

Stewart said the hospital does great work and she's always pleased to make memorial donations, but she would like to see the language in its fundraising letters changed. She has voiced her concerns in her blog, cribchronicles.com, and has written to the hospital foundation.

She asked the foundation to send out different mailings to parents who have lost children, and the foundation is looking forward to meeting with her.

"I think that she has a point and I think that we probably need to modify some of the wording that we use," said Robbie Shaw, president and CEO of the IWK Health Centre Foundation.

"We'd like to get together with her and some of the other bereaved parents and learn a little more. To be honest, I'm perhaps more sympathetic than most because my wife and I lost a child at full-term birth. I know the kind of agony that they've gone through."

Shaw said while he believes the fundraising language used by the foundation needs to be reviewed, sending a different material to bereaved parents is problematic. Privacy legislation prevents the foundation from creating a separate list of parents of children who died at the hospital, or even knowing who has had children who have been patients.