This week, from Tuesday 9th until Monday 15th October, is Baby Loss Awareness Week.
What a tender – and for some very painful – subject; and often we are so awkward in broaching conversations around these things. We often don’t know how to talk about our experiences, our losses – our babies; and we may find that others around us don’t know how to ask, although both we and they might wish they did.
I know people who have lost their babies as infants – my own mother is one of them; I have friends who have carried their babies full-term only to discover that they were stillborn; and I have friends whose miscarriages have neared double-figures.
One loss is enough. One loss is one loss too many. One loss, one life – every life – matters.
This campaign in raising awareness is about counting each and every life – at whatever stage of pregnancy or infancy – as equal, unique, precious, wanted and loved. It is about acknowledging every life, every loss, every baby and every grieving mother and father. It gives permission and a space for people to share and exchange and for conversations around baby loss to happen and to matter.
I experienced a miscarriage myself after the birth of our first child. It is known as a missed miscarriage, meaning that our baby’s heartbeat had stopped some time before we actually found out.
I will share at some point throughout this week of my own experience of miscarriage, as many are so bravely doing.
Your baby is remembered, dear reader. Your experience, your loss, your heartache matters, brave heart. You are loved, loved, loved and you are surrounded, supported, joined and understood by so many – not only today and this week but always.
florencejoy 