Hope Blooms: Surviving Miscarriage Together

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Well here it comes again: Mother's Day is on the horizon. And did you know there is a Bereaved Mother's Day too? Do we need two holidays? Does it help? Does it hurt? What should you do on Mother's Day? How should you feel? 

We don't have the answers to all of these questions, but we are here to say: 

Dear miscarriage mamas, 

You are a real mother. You carried life inside of you. You deserve a day. You deserve to smile, to cry, to grieve, to laugh - however your motherhood makes you feel at this moment. 

In this episode Emily and Maria talk about these approaching holidays and give some ideas for how to survive Mother's Day and Bereaved Mother's Day after experiencing early pregnancy loss. 

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Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: [email protected]

P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242

To request a miscarriage care kit please email [email protected] with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.

Send a text

Grieving a miscarriage is complicated. The life lost was real. The grief is real. But there feels like there is so little to hold onto. Maybe an ultrasound, a pregnancy test, some early baby presents. But there are no pictures, no birthdays, no conversations, or stories. How do we remember little ones we never met living?

Emily and Maria talk about what it means to remember and give some examples of rituals and practices that have helped them and others over the years.

Encouraging Loved Ones After A Miscarriage
Why We Remember Our Miscarried Children
Remembering Our Children 

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Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: [email protected]

P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242

To request a miscarriage care kit please email [email protected] with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.

Send a text

Emily had an idea: She wanted to provide relief for medical bills incurred due to miscarriage. This was really the seed that planted what would become EPLA, but we still don't do it. 

In this episode Maria and Emily discuss the early days of EPLA, the vision of medical bill relief, and our hopes for what is on the horizon! 

Support the show

Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: [email protected]

P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242

To request a miscarriage care kit please email [email protected] with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.

Send a text

"I didn't want the claim that she was happy to mean I wasn't allowed to be sad." 

Jordan Wales shares his story of losing Theodora and how he cared for his wife Kathryn and worked through his grief in the coming days, weeks, months, and years. 

Support the show

Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: [email protected]

P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242

To request a miscarriage care kit please email [email protected] with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.

Send a text

Maria and Emily explain the two miscarriage care kits offered by EPLA. This episode is a great opportunity to understand what is in each kit and why. 

For more information about miscarriage care kits visit our website: https://www.miscarriagecare.com/blog/epla-service-miscarriage-care-kits

To request a kit for yourself or a loved one email us at [email protected]. 
Please indicate which kit is needed and a name and address for the recipient. 

Support the show

Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: [email protected]

P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242

To request a miscarriage care kit please email [email protected] with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.

Send a text

Poetry lends itself to a deep expression of feelings and is often able of capturing the most painful parts of the human experience.

This week we are joined by Dr. Elizabeth Fredericks, Assistant Professor of English at Hillsdale College to look at three Irish poems on early pregnancy loss.

We hope that these guided readings through these poems will touch and soothe your heart as only poetry can. 

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Poems read and discussed: 

Sinead Morrissey, “Stitches,” originally published in Between Here and There (Carcanet, 2002), reprinted in Parallax & Selected Poems (Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 2013)

Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, “Miscarriage Abroad,” Northern Lights (Gallery Press, 2018)

Michael Longley, “Miscarriage,” published in An Exploded View: Poems 1968-1972 (Gollancz, 1973) (out of print)

Others mentioned:

Paul Muldoon, “The Stoic,” Moy Sand and Gravel (Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 2002)

Doireann Ní Ghríofa, “Waking,” Clasp (Dedalus Press, 2015)

We also talked about Eavan Boland; poems like “Night Feed” are in her Collected Poems (Norton, 2005).

Support the show

Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: [email protected]

P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242

To request a miscarriage care kit please email [email protected] with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.

Send a text

Working through grief after pregnancy loss can be really challenging. Ben and Heidi pick up where we left off in our previous episode discussing their own path through grief and working through that grief within their marriage. 

Support the show

Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: [email protected]

P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242

To request a miscarriage care kit please email [email protected] with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.

Send a text

Ben and Heidi Kafferlin join Maria and Emily to share their miscarriage story.  From a traumatic trip to the hospital to the emotional aftermath of loss, the Kafferlin's open up about working through miscarriage as a young couple in early marriage. 

Support the show

Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: [email protected]

P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242

To request a miscarriage care kit please email [email protected] with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.

Send a text

Robin Bertram joins us to talk about her lack of experience with early pregnancy loss and how that led her to be one of EPLA's most active volunteers. 

We often talk about the prevalence of early pregnancy loss, but that doesn't mean everyone has had first hand experience. This lack of personal experience doesn't mean you can't help - learning about loss and available resources is a great way to start. 

Support the show

Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: [email protected]

P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242

To request a miscarriage care kit please email [email protected] with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.

Send a text

We are quick to prescribe gentleness in times of grief, but do we even know what that means? Has the command to be 'gentle with yourself' become just one more thing to do in a time of helplessness? How do we understand gentleness in a way that allows for healing and restoration. 

Emily and Maria start the conversation digging in to what 'being gentle with yourself' might look like, especially as we prepare for the Holidays. 

Support the show

Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: [email protected]

P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242

To request a miscarriage care kit please email [email protected] with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.