How Showing Empathy Can Help You Support Others

By: Elizabeth Lowder When a friend or loved one has experienced a loss like a miscarriage, failed IVF or even a negative pregnancy test, we want to do something to help. To take the pain and sadness away and to help them feel better. Common responses couples hear when they’re going through infertility might be…

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The Perspective of a Labor Nurse

By: Jennifer Kouri RN, CPLC “You are a labor & delivery nurse? You are SO lucky! That has to be the happiest unit in the hospital!” Working as a labor nurse for 20 years I have heard these phrases many times from people when they ask what I do for a living. Yes, it truly…

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Footprints On My Heart

By: Nikki Grayson Angel Wings and a baby hat; black and white photographs and a little blue blanket; nurses to cry with and a doctor to share your fears with. It was one year ago on a Monday morning when I walked through the double doors of the OB floor. As I followed the nurse…

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Two Times The Struggle

By: Kayla Leibner It’s no secret that it can be difficult to return to a state of normalcy after a life-altering event.  Adjusting to and recovering from big changes takes time – and sometimes a lot of it.  When you lose a child, returning to normal isn’t really an option.  Life never looks the same,…

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The Care and Compassion of a Chaplain

By: Ann-Marie Ferry I am not sure where the thought originated from, but it popped out of my mouth and found its way into the hospital air, “Should we baptize him?” I asked.  Jon and I did not entertain the thought for long. After all, neither of us believed in Infant Baptism. Why would we…

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When Our Heart’s Hurt: Unveiling The Face Of Grief

By: Ann-Marie Ferry A few years back my husband and I decided to take the dull winter months of the Midwest to read to each other in the evenings. I am a lifelong fan of C.S. Lewis. The Chronicles of Narnia, Mere Christianity, and The Screwtape Letters are among my favorites. My husband, Jon, is…

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The Emotions You Experience During Your Grief

By: Shawanna Allen Numbness, Confusion, Anger, Pain, Shame, Emptiness, and Sadness In no particular order are the aforementioned all the emotions I experienced on August 8th when I, in my heart knew and then affirmed by the emergency room doctor that I was indefinitely having a miscarriage. Prior to this day I had been back…

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When Hello Means Goodbye

By: Tracy Gilmour-Nimoy, M.S., LMFT, PMH-C Over the edge of an exam table, my feet anxiously dangle; I can hear the sound from the crinkling paper as I nervously shift, my eyes desperately locked with my husband’s. A week of multiple diagnostics and appointments has led us here—in a doctor’s office three hours from home,…

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When Hello Means Goodbye

By: Tracy Gilmour-Nimoy, M.S., LMFT, PMH-C Over the edge of an exam table, my feet anxiously dangle; I can hear the sound from the crinkling paper as I nervously shift, my eyes desperately locked with my husband’s. A week of multiple diagnostics and appointments has led us here—in a doctor’s office three hours from home,…

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Facing Grief Together

By: Ann-Marie Ferry In the days following Kuyper’s stillbirth I grieved visibly through tears and sobs. My husband, Jon, remained stoic, emotionally detached from the reality which we faced. We went on this way for several weeks following delivery. After a long day at work, he walked through our front door, outraged, talking about a…

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