Content warning: This episode contains discussion of infant loss and grief. The first half of our conversation shares details about childbirth, Mai's daughter's brain injury, and her baby's death. There are references to infant loss and discussions of grief in the second half. Please take care while listening.

Author and mom Mai Nguyen joins host Emily Hessney Lynch for an in-depth conversation about a mind-bending, life-altering experience that left her saying WTF and grieving deeply: losing her baby when she was just a few days old due to a brain injury caused by a lack of oxygen during delivery. Mai shares what that experience was like (devastating), how she was able to hope again, why having another baby seemed both necessary and inevitable, and what it was like to put her grief on the page in writing her new book, Cleo Dang Would Rather Be Dead.

In the second half of the show, we explore what it was like to go through pregnancy and childbirth again after such a traumatic loss, how Mai teaches her living daughter Leah about her big sister Gemma, what it's like to be friends with your grief, and the joy of learning that your kid's favorite show is getting new episodes soon.

Links:

• Grab a copy of Mai's new book, Cleo Dang Would Rather Be Dead or borrow it from your local library!
• Advocacy group mentioned in the episode: Measure the Placenta
• Mai's piece for Oprah Daily that we mention in the episode: "My Family Never Talked About Death. Then I Lost My Baby."
• For more of Mai, follow her on Instagram and check out her website.
• Follow Emily on Instagram and check out her business, Serve Me the Sky Digital, if you need a social media strategist, speaker, or writer!

Books mentioned in this episode:

• My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
• Mai's recommendations: Hold My Girl by Charlene Carr & Gemma and the Giant Girl by Sara O'Leary
• Emily's recommendation: If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff

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Mentioned in this episode:

Joe Bean Roasters

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