A warm welcome to the following bloggers:
Dancing Barefoot on Weathered Ground*
Caring for Carleigh*
In Memory of Johnny Giovanni*
Babymaking 101
The Ehrlich's (Our lives in a nutshell)*
and a new resource in Online Links:
Miscarriages*
A warm welcome to the following bloggers who recently submitted their blogs
My Yellow Brick Road Has Potholes*
Making Coyne
Still Serving HIM Through The Storm*
West Temple Life
2 Feet on Earth 1 in the Stars*
and the following resource has been added:
Noah's Rainbow: A Father's emotional journey from the death of his son to the birth of his daughter. By David Fleming
A warm welcome to the following bloggers, who have submitted their blogs in the past few months:
Sands UK
Countdown to Parliament
28.02.09
On Wednesday 4th March we will be presenting our Saving Babies' Lives report which will highlight why we believe that in many cases the devastating impact of the death of a baby on the parents, their families and friends could be prevented.
The overriding message from Sands and the thousands of parents who are supporting the Why17? campaign is that the deaths of 17 babies a day in the UK is totally unacceptable. What we want to see is a clear acknowledgement of the seriousness and extent of the problem and a real, collaborative commitment to address these individual tragedies as a matter of urgency and priority.
The Why 17? campaign parliamentary launch, is an important event in the Sands calendar and will be hosted by Anne Milton MP, between 4pm and 6pm at the House of Commons.
This will give us the opportunity to raise awareness of Sands amongst key parliamentarians, as well as to present our Saving Babies’ Lives Report 2009. This new Report, being published and launched on 4th March calls for a co-ordinated, national strategy to tackle stillbirths and neonatal deaths, and the political will to prioritise the lives of babies as an urgent health issue.
There are many people who have been instrumental to the Why17? campaign. To all those families, staff, volunteers and supporters of Sands who have backed the Why17? campaign since its inception, you are the driving force behind the campaign and our thanks go out to each and every one of you.
Together we can make a difference.
A warm welcome to the following bloggers:
Lala Land*
Rachels Ramblings 365
Today I Crawled Out From Under My Rock
Trying to Believe in Miracles
EllisJane
The following request for participation was recently submitted:
I am a freelance journalist researching a story for a national UK publication about how blogging helps mothers deal with the loss of a child. The purpose of the article is to highlight how blogs can go some way towards dealing with grief by providing an outlet for thoughts and feelings as well as building a support network via the larger blogging community. This is a subject that, to the best of my knowledge, gets little attention in the mainstream media but I have definite interest from an editor and the story ought to be helpful in publicizing baby loss blogs, particularly in the UK. I understand that this is a very delicate matter and I would like to stress that I do not intend to probe any areas that a family deems private. If you are a UK blogger and would like to discuss this a little further I would be happy to answer any concerns you might have. I can be reached via email at pdberger AT gmail DOT com.
Paul Berger.
A warm welcome to the following bloggers:
Life Without Clarence*
Our Cup Runneth Over
Kirchink
Carly Nicole Elliotte My Micro-Preemie and Hannah Kathlean Elliotte...My angel in heaven
By the pricking of my thumbs
A warm welcome to the following bloggers:
One in my heart and one in my arms*
Tuesday's Hope
Overeducated Mommy*
Embracing My Life*
Heart Heal Hope*
The Real Bean
A warm welcome to the following bloggers:
From Valleys to Rivers*
burble
Missing Eliana
life without my baby
Into The West
The Great Umbrella Heist*
Until we meet again...
Forever in our Hearts*
loving, living and loss*
STILL
Departed Angel
Are we there yet??*
aurelia ann*
November I will Always Remember
Everything Is Under Control*
A warm welcome to the following bloggers:
Thoughts From A Grieving Mother*
From The Grid And Beyond*
Harry Line*
Life and Love in the Petri Dish
Because You Never Know
Tiny Footprints*
Surrender*
A warm welcome to the following bloggers
Dan, Hillary, and Little Russell
A Garden For Butterflies
Infant Loss- Past, Present, Future
A Lifetime of Love
Shareapy
He Will Carry Me
California is Calling
Angels Brielle and Natalie
More Love to Thee
If you sent an email and your blog hasn't been added yet, apologies. Please bear with us as we work together to catch up on a backlog of emails.
When Thelma Williams' baby died at birth, his body was whisked away and he wasn't spoken of again. It took 40 years to confront her grief and finally give a name to her lost child - James
As told to Kate Hilpern
The Guardian, Saturday 10 January 2009
I know I'm not the first woman to have found something she would rather not have discovered in her husband's suit pocket. In my case, it was a notification of the burial of our son. I didn't even know he had been buried until that moment. I had been told when I was six months pregnant that he would die the moment he left my body and somehow I just accepted it when he was whisked away and never spoken of again. This was the 1960s. You didn't talk about such things.
At least, I think it was the 1960s. That's the thing. It could have been 1970. I couldn't tell you what day it was, what season, let alone which year - such was my determination to follow the advice and forget, a task only momentarily but acutely interrupted by the burial slip.
We had another baby later on. I did everything they told me, resting almost solidly for nine months. On 26 December 1971, in the afternoon, Emma was born, a beautiful little girl weighing 7lb 13oz. Home we went with joy in our hearts and everything ahead of us.
It was only when Emma had her own baby, Millie, that it hit me. They say time heals, but there has been nothing chronological about my journey of grief. Nor anything predictable. Out of nowhere it came, threatening to drive a wedge between me and my granddaughter, a granddaughter I had loved unconditionally from the moment I knew she was conceived. But love is different from bonding, I have learned. Bonding is something I could not do with Millie until I acknowledged the loss of my baby boy. And when I had done that - and at last found a place for him to rest in my consciousness - I discovered a bond closer than I could have imagined.
It was 2004, the year before I turned 70, that Emma became pregnant. It was such wonderful news and at first I accepted my niggles of fear as normal. Doesn't every mother of a pregnant daughter worry like mad that everything will be all right? But my anxiety kept growing. Emma knew the reason immediately. Once she reached adolescence, I told her about my stillbirth. She had wanted to know why she had no brothers and sisters. I had surprised myself with how "together" I sounded when I spoke of it. I could relay the facts - facts of which I had hardly mentioned in decades - without a tear in my eye and after I told Emma, I found I could tell others too. Provided I stuck to the facts - and didn't enter the realm of feelings - I sounded like a survivor.
Emma knows me very well and as the weeks of her pregnancy totted up, she spotted the cracks in my shield. She wanted to protect me, to reassure me that everything was OK, but understandably she was starting to feel anxious too. Could what had happened to me happen to her too?
We spoke to the midwife and the specialist. They assured us that all was well. The specialist knew about the condition that befell me when I was pregnant and was shocked to hear how I was treated. He used the word barbaric. He asked if I would like to see the scan of Emma's baby for myself, so I could feel comforted. I did see the scan but I didn't feel comforted. More
By DAVID HLAVSA
Published: September 19, 2008
Sheona McDonald recently finished a documentary film called "Capturing A Short Life". It will broadcast on CBC Newsworld, The Lens, on December 9th, 2008 at 10pm.
