Personal stories from pregnancy and infant loss
Up to 1,500 words
Please include some reflection on your grieving and healing journey. This could be growth, lessons learned, connection with your baby, meaningful signs or messages, healing experiences, or moments of kindness, grace, and hope found in grief.
The reality is that we can hold both the pain and sorrow of grief with hope and healing. I am determined to let others who have been impacted by these devastating losses know that as well. This work is my lifeline, my purpose, and my commitment to make a difference in the lives of those who share in the heartbreak of loss.
Read MoreSharing my son's story and listening to others' narratives provided a sacred space for me to unravel, only to gradually piece myself back together. In the gentle embrace of shared experiences, I found the strength to confront the depth of my pain.
Read MoreI often say that the support I experienced and continue to experience from this community of loss moms has been a life raft. Without it, I may have drowned in a sea of my own sorrow and tears.
Read MoreAfter enough of those moments, you look back at where you have been, and realize that hope has somehow snuck its way back in.
Read MoreAfter attending the Return to Zero BIPOC Pregnancy and Infant Loss Support Group I became very close with a couple of the other women who attended and have since gone through pregnancy after loss and now parenting after loss with two of them. I consider them sisters and know we will be lifelong friends.
Read MoreEven though DJ is no longer here physically, he is ALWAYS here in spirit, because I carry him with me. He is my motivation. He lifts me up on the days I want to quit. He inspires me to help others.
Read MoreThe act of volunteering helped me heal from my own trauma by reshaping the need to bare my story as something that serves others–as well as RTZ HOPE’s mission–with people who might be too afraid to reach out for help.
Read MoreEver since we lost her, purple flowers pop up in our path everywhere we go. We hold them as a symbol of her and our friends and family share purple flower photos and videos too.
Read MoreThese women spoke my innermost thoughts, they normalized ALL of the things happening to and around me. I listened to their stories and grieved with them. I realized these were bravest, most compassionate, loving mothers.
Read MoreI had to come to terms with the fact that bad things happen in this imperfect world where death and darkness exist. Joshua’s death was not caused by any “mistake or choice” I made. I eventually came to accept this.
Read MoreMy love will wrap around you like a warm blanket little love. And with that love, I’ll shield you with a golden aura of protection to keep you safe. To deflect any harm or negativity.
Read MoreIf I could speak to the young loss mom—the younger me—the woman in the prime of her 20s ambitious and eager to make a mark in the world, ready to take on motherhood to only be plowed by feelings of failure and misery, I would like to share these gentle words with her now—and you too—of what I know and have learned for sure, thus far, on my grief journey.
Read MoreI chose to do something different from my first encounter with pregnancy loss. I wouldn’t isolate, hide, bury, put up a front, smile. I would honor every single feeling that arose, as it did in real time… And in doing so, I was writing a new story. This was new for me.
Read MoreDespite feeling like a complete failure because I was unable to protect him, I focused on how I could use my experience to be the voice for change.
Read MoreI couldn’t imagine that my life would one day be filled with laughter, joy, and love again; but it is. Of course, there are also challenges, tears, and pain. All these can coexist in one heart. My heart is filled with love, grief, joy and hope.
Read MoreI needed a way to say goodbye, not only to the life that had been growing in me, but also to the due date, the list of names, the future I had already started to paint.
Read MoreWe can’t choose how long it takes to win any given battle with grief, but we can choose whether we’ll keep fighting for the life we want to live, or whether we’ll settle into our misery. We can turn with courage toward healing, or we can turn our backs on it.
Read More"I was experiencing the grief of losing my mom and then I started experiencing the grief of losing my pregnancy.”
Read MoreThe present and future are mine to create, and while I’m still finding my way, I see such calm in the skies, and that helps me feel whole.
Read MoreMy child, once torn from me,
Seems close.
I feel her.
She is mine,
I am her mother.
