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Loss

Loss

Belonging

Humans are social beings; we like to belong to a group.  We need to feel included, connected and to have people who we feel allied with.  Friendship, work, social and hobby groups; we find comfort and affiliation with those who have common ground, those with similar likes and dislikes and those who we feel will ‘get us’.  People with whom you can be yourself and share your thoughts and feelings on a subject, and whilst they might not necessarily always agree, they will likely understand at least where you’re coming from.
 
We all want to belong.
 
And it is this sense of belonging that I have struggled with since the moment that Orla died.  In which group did I sit?  I quickly exited the NCT WhatsApp group chat because I couldn’t bring myself to share our news in the midst of other joyful live birth announcements, and we were never in contact again.  I was clearly no longer part of a group that was going to be my ‘mummy crew’.  I had no friends who had experienced a similar loss, so I felt somehow distanced and separated from those I loved the most.  I could no longer even look at pregnant women in the street and share a knowing smile, because I was no longer in their team.  Baby loss is excruciatingly painful exclusion that permeates almost every aspect of your life. Continue Reading

October 14, 2017 by
Loss, Mental health and wellbeing

Regret me not: Coping with regrets in life after loss

 
Regret; the sense of sadness or repentance for having done or not done something.
 
I carry an overwhelming sense of regret in this life I live after loss, and it is something that can be a heavy burden to bear.  After all, there is no going back, no changing what has been done or not done.  Orla has gone, there is no way of getting her back and no way of making new memories with her physical presence in place of ones that we were not able to do.  Death is final.
 
There are many things that I feel incredibly proud of, maybe more so in what we have undertaken since Orla died; her letters, the fundraising, the blog.  Yet there are so many things that I wish I could have done differently.  One of the biggest regrets will always be the overwhelming sense that I failed Orla and potentially could have saved her.  This undoubtedly goes further than regret and fast tracks to heart crushing guilt and shame.  This is not just a tinge of sadness or sorrow, this is full blown rage at myself that I can only sometimes allow myself to unleash, through fear of how it will consume me.  This is mum guilt at its absolute extreme: the feeling that I could have, should have, saved her and in not doing so I am not fit to award myself the title of mother.  Mothers protect their children and I somehow allowed mine to die. Continue Reading

October 11, 2017 by
Loss, Mental health and wellbeing

You are so strong

Strong:

  1. Having the power to move heavy weights or perform other physically demanding tasks
  2. Able to withstand force, pressure, or wear
  3. Very intense

After losing your baby, this is something that many people seem to say: ‘you are so strong’ or ‘I don’t think I could be as strong as you’.  I know this can be frustrating for some people, because being strong isn’t a choice, it is the only way to survive.  Baby loss didn’t choose us because we are strong enough to bear the pain, baby loss does not discriminate and it could happen to anyone.

Yes, you have to be strong when your baby dies, because the pain is intense and all-consuming and you need to learn to live alongside this force.  Every single minute of every single day.  Yet I sometimes worry how this may be perceived by those who have lost a baby – what does it look like?  Does it mean returning to how you were before?  Does it mean going back to work and carrying on as if nothing happened?  Does it mean not needing to seek help for your emotional wellbeing and ‘just carrying on’?  Is it good old British stiff upper lip?

And what if you can’t do this?  What if you don’t feel able to go back to work or engage in fundraising or something equally challenging?  What if you can’t get out of bed each day?  Does that somehow make you weak?  Does that mean that you aren’t doing this whole ‘surviving baby loss thing’ very well?
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October 10, 2017 by
Loss

Be(a)ware: Why raise awareness?

Today marks the start of Baby Loss Awareness Week; every year from the 9th – 15th October, bereaved parents, their families and professionals unite to remember and commemorate their babies as well as raising awareness about the issues surrounding baby loss.  Babies can die at many different stages in many different ways: miscarriage, ectopic and molar pregnancies, stillbirth, life limiting conditions, incidents in labour, illness, accident and prematurity – all equally valid and all painful and life changing in their own right.  And this week is for all of those affected by baby loss.  But it is also for those who have not been directly affected by loss too, because you never know when you will meet someone who has.

But what do we mean by awareness?  It is something that I think every single bereaved parent will say at some point in their life post loss – ‘I just want to help raise awareness’.  And almost 18 months down the line, I still feel passionately about this too.  However, I have had to stop and think about what this really means to me and what I want to achieve.  And to do that, I have had to pick apart the many functions of awareness raising.
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October 9, 2017 by
Loss

Dear courageous mama….

A letter to the woman who has just been told that her baby has died

As I prepare to give birth again, I look back to just ten and a half months ago and wonder what advice I would give to myself now.  The person who had just been told that her baby had died at 37 weeks gestation, without any warning.  Her baby who was healthy and perfect in every way, who she had seen wriggling around at the 36 week scan just five days before.  Whose heartbeat she had heard just two days earlier. 
That woman, who lying on the triage room bed, had just seen her baby’s still heart on the ultrasound screen.  Who was surrounded by doctors and midwives, being told that she had no choice but to labour and give birth, that she had to start the process that evening; that all she was allowed to do was to go home and pack a bag before returning for induction.  The woman who wanted to be put to sleep and never wake up, who couldn’t fathom that she had to go through the process of birthing, something she had so lovingly prepared for, knowing that the outcome would be silence and leaving the hospital empty handed.  Knowing that she had to break the news to her family and friends that she had let them down in the worst way possible.  That she had failed to protect her much loved and longed for baby.
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March 28, 2017 by