October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month. In honor of this month, we are launching an important new resource to better support families in our community navigating the grief of loss while serving cross-culturally. LaDonna joins us to share about the Perinatal Loss Debrief Packet and The Virtual Village CARE Facebook group.

On October 15th we will be participating in the International Wave of Light to honor each child who is no longer here with us. We will create a virtual candle in honor of your child and post it. We ask that all name submissions be sent by October 13th to ensure time to create the posts.

Link to the debrief page:

https://chandler-gilow-s-school.teachable.com/p/perinatal-loss-resources

Link to the Virtual Village Care:

https://www.facebook.com/share/g/AjJn6kKSwJ8irwaU/?mibextid=K35XfP

Link to A Beautiful Remembrance Instagram Page:

https://www.instagram.com/abeautifulremembrance?igsh=dW1iMGtwdGVqeDhk

In this episode, we have the joy of experiencing a shortened version of a Birth Story Listening Session with Christine Rollings. Birth Story listening is not a well-known service, however, I think it is such a gift to our community as we process all the layers of birth abroad. Since this is a new service, we thought it would be helpful to do an episode to answer some common questions and provide a demonstration. You can compare this episode to Season 1 Episode 3 (A Healing Vbac in the Middle East) where I tell my full birth story to see how this differs from a traditional sharing format.

You can also check out Christine's first birth story from abroad in Season 2 Episode 3 (Leaning into the Culture: A Vaginal Birth in Turkey).

You can find Christine's Birth Story Listening information at https://www.ivyandrill.com/ or follow her on IG @ivy.and.rill

In this episode, Alex joins us to share her story of navigating pregnancy and birth in her first 13 months of living abroad. She shares about figuring out a new medical system, inducing labor, leaning on a newly formed community to care for her older son, being unable to get an epidural, and much more!

She also shares about her Facebook community for parents of TCKs 0-5 years and her upcoming services to offer fertility awareness coaching and education for families serving cross-culturally.

In this episode Jamie shares three birth stories from Belarus. We discuss: universal v private healthcare, c-sections, VBACs, moving internationally while pregnant, transverse position, leaning on the expat community, postpartum depression, and navigating testing after a prenatal marker for Down Syndrome.