Helping Others Through My Grief
By: Christine Ford
Losing my son to Trisomy 18 on May 5, 2018 has completely changed my life. My outlook on life has changed and how I connect with and view others has changed. I have much more empathy towards others who have miscarried, had a stillbirth, or have lost an infant, baby, or young child. When I first lost Walter, who lived for a short 15 hours, I felt very alone once I was home and my husband had gone back to work. I joined a few Infant Loss Groups online but never felt a strong connection to anyone in these groups and I began feeling that reading others tragic loss stories was doing more harm than good. I joined a local Infant Loss Support Group and felt close to the other loss mamas but again eventually pulled away as one by one each one of these women went on to have a Rainbow Baby.
As a mother who cannot have any more children, I felt that I no longer could handle the daily updates on Facebook of all of the milestones of the new babies.
It was around this time that I decided that I wanted to honor and remember Baby Walter’s life by designing beautiful classic jointed teddy bears that would hold a heartbeat recording of an unborn baby’s heartbeat. I had recorded Baby Walter’s heartbeat during my pregnancy but was disappointed with the lack of selection of a high-quality keepsake in which to keep the heartbeat recorder. After a few months of designing and then locating a manufacturer, my first lot of teddy bears, and heartbeat pillows arrived at my door. The quality was great, and each pillow and bear had a Velcro pocket on the back where a heartbeat recorder could be placed. I felt good that I was helping other mother’s make memories of their pregnancies. But, what about all of the women, like me, who had lost their babies and had most likely missed the opportunity to record their baby’s heartbeat? This is when I realized that I could open the Velcro closure on the back of the teddy bears, un-stuff them and then add weight to match an Angel Baby’s weight up to 11 lbs. When I searched for other weighted bears online, I found that there was a waiting time from weeks to months until the bear arrived to the loss mama. This is way too long for a grieving mother. I strive to ship the custom weighted bears in 1 – 2 business days.
Through my grief and healing process I have been able to honor Baby Walter’s life while helping pregnant mothers make memories through recording their baby’s heartbeats and help mothers who have lost their pregnancies or infants through the Weighted Infant Loss Bears.
I hope my story will inspire you to do something great in honor of your lost little one too.
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About Christine Ford
Christine Ford is the Owner of Baby Beat Bears LLC, which operates under the trade name of
Walter’s Bears. She currently resides in Downingtown, PA with her husband and three children. Christine holds a Master’s Degree in the field of education and is experienced in both sales and marketing. Shortly after the loss of her fourth child in 2018, Walter Ernest Ford Jr., who had passed away due to complications caused by Trisomy 18, Christine began creating keepsakes for other families who had suffered the loss of an infant. Walter’s Bears specializes in high-quality, customized, fully jointed classic teddy bears and other
recordable keepsakes. The current teddy bear product lines include: Custom Weighted Infant Loss Bears, Teddy Bear Urns, Heartbeat Teddy Bears and Ocean Bears.
The company has recently surpassed the 1000 sales mark and Christine is looking forward to continuing helping others grieve positively and create lasting memories with their families, for
many years to come.
Visit Walter’s Bears at: www.waltersbears.com