Hope Blooms: Recent Episodes
Early Pregnancy Loss Association
We are here to love, support, and dignify the women and families who have suffered early pregnancy loss.Through story-telling and educational interviews the Hope Blooms podcast helps us build a community so that no one suffers miscarriage alone.Hope Blooms is a production of the Early Pregnancy Loss Association
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How do we heal emotionally after miscarriage? How do we heal physically after a miscarriage?
How do we understand our bodies during our fertility journeys? What happens to our hormones after miscarriage? How do women know their body is ready to try again.
Bekah is a Christian hormone and ovulation coach, FEMM Educator, and certified doula. She works to help women understand their fertility cycles.
Learn more about Bekah here: https://bekahyawn.com/
Listen to her Podcast: For the Love of Hormones
Support the show
Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
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Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: Miscarriagecare@gmail.com
P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242
To request a miscarriage care kit please email miscarriagecare@gmail.com with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.
Send us a text
EPLA hosted a lunch and learn at Hillsdale Hospital featuring Angie Winton of Metro Detroit Share. We hosted this event with the hope to help medical providers prepare women for home miscarriages. After the event Angie and Maria sat down to talk more.
Support the show
Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: Miscarriagecare@gmail.com
P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242
To request a miscarriage care kit please email miscarriagecare@gmail.com with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.
Send us a text
Often women and families who have suffered early pregnancy loss do not have the opportunity to honor their children through a public funeral service. But what is lost when we don't have a way to communally process our grief?
Rev. Adam Rick shares his experience leading Blue Christmas and Rachel weeping services for those suffering grief or child loss.
Rev. Rick is a priest in the Anglican Church of North America and serves as a Chaplain at Hillsdale College.
Support the show
Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: Miscarriagecare@gmail.com
P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242
To request a miscarriage care kit please email miscarriagecare@gmail.com with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.
Send us a text
In this week's episode writer, wife, and mother, Nadya Williams, shares her stories of loss and the burial of her two sons on their private property. Years later a move across state lines and a significant shift in the law changes everything.
Don't miss her original story at Current.
Support the show
Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: Miscarriagecare@gmail.com
P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242
To request a miscarriage care kit please email miscarriagecare@gmail.com with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.
Send us a text
Maria talks with Hayley Trotter, Director of Clinical Operations for Haven Miscarriage Clinic, a medical clinic designed specifically to serve miscarrying women that hopes to open next year in the Atlanta area. Maria and Hayley discuss the importance of miscarriage-specific medical care and how Haven will accompany women through pregnancy loss.
https://www.havenmiscarriageclinic.com/
Support the show
Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: Miscarriagecare@gmail.com
P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242
To request a miscarriage care kit please email miscarriagecare@gmail.com with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.
Send us a text
Women suffering early pregnancy loss are often unable to bury their babies, especially in cemeteries. This can be for many reasons sometimes they are unable to collect the body, the body was needed for testing, or they do not have the resources available bury their little one. Many women aren't even given the information necessary to move forward with how to proceed even if they wanted a burial.
But this problem tends to lead to a bigger question. If we want to participate in grief and mourning rituals as we grieve our miscarried children, what should those rituals look like? How do we acknowledge our grief and honor our little ones rightly.
In this episode Emily is joined by Holly Russell to talk about the history of grief and mourning rituals in America. With a background as a museum curator and librarian Holly offers insight to how we have dealt with death in America. We specifically look at the heavily ritualistic Victorians to see what we can learn from them.
This is a re-run of an episode originally
Support the show
Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: Miscarriagecare@gmail.com
P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242
To request a miscarriage care kit please email miscarriagecare@gmail.com with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.
Send us a text
Miscarriage myths have always been out there. In this episode Emily and Maria tackle some current myths and misconceptions.
Taking from this great article from Natural Cycles, Emily and Maria explore three prominent myths that should be eliminated and understood fully. This episode will offer the truth about treatment for miscarriage, the length of a miscarriage, and the physical experience of miscarriage.
Support the show
Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: Miscarriagecare@gmail.com
P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242
To request a miscarriage care kit please email miscarriagecare@gmail.com with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.
Send us a text
Anne Bradstreet weathered the harsh New England Winters and the hard life of starting a society in the new world.
America's first poet, Bradstreet chronicles the joy and pain of her life experience. While she never lost any of her own children - she suffered the grief of infant death losing several of her grandchildren.
Her poetry points to the pain and grief of losing a little one all too soon. In this episode Emily and Maria look at two of her poems. Nearly 400 years later her grief connects mothers across centuries.
Mourning Poems:
https://wams.nyhistory.org/early-encounters/english-colonies/anne-bradstreet-mourning-poetry/
More about Bradstreet:
https://poetryarchive.org/poet/anne-bradstreet/
This episode is republished from our archives. The original episode ran 12/06/23
Support the show
Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: Miscarriagecare@gmail.com
P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242
To request a miscarriage care kit please email miscarriagecare@gmail.com with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.
Send us a text
While miscarriage is common it is often misunderstood. This is your primer for all of the basic definitions, medical jargon, and common phrases surrounding early pregnancy loss.
Missed miscarriage? Spontaneous abortion? Dilation and Curettage? Molar Pregnancy? It is important to have a clear and simple understanding of each of these words, even if you have never experienced pregnancy loss.
For more information you can visit our website: https://www.miscarriagecare.com/resources.html
Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: Miscarriagecare@gmail.com
P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242
To request a miscarriage care kit please email miscarriagecare@gmail.com with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.
Send us a text
"I'll love you forever
I'll like you for always..."
These words ring in our ears as we have likely heard them many times before. Robert Munsch's book has made its way into our hearts and minds. Many of us heard the book as children and now read the book to our children. Some people love, some people are bothered by persistence of what we might see as an overbearing mother.
But the back story leading to this book only deepens its meaning and enriches its symbolism.
As loss parents know too well... as long as we're living, our babies you will be...
In this episode Emily and Maria discuss how this book has been a part of their lives throughout their whole lives.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-heartbreaking-story-behind-iconic-childrens-book-love-you-forever_n_573ceb97e4b0aee7b8e8f76f
Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: Miscarriagecare@gmail.com
P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242
To request a miscarriage care kit please email miscarriagecare@gmail.com with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.
Send us a Text Message.
A miscarriage is a significant physical and emotional event for a woman and her family. Often under prepared and under informed women experience miscarriages without the right supplies or information.
EPLA is committed to distributing our miscarriage care kits at no cost to families or providers. We seek to help bear the burden of grief for women and families suffering early pregnancy loss, and bearing the financial burden is one tangible way we can support families during this difficult time.
Our care kits provide essential sanitary items and educational resources to meet the needs of women immediately after loss.
To learn more about how you can join us to carry this burden please visit Zeffy!
Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: Miscarriagecare@gmail.com
P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242
To request a miscarriage care kit please email miscarriagecare@gmail.com with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.
Send us a Text Message.
This week we sit down with Jamilah Robinson, the co-founder and Executive Director of Missing Pieces Support Group in Houston, Texas.
EPLA is excited to highlight this organization as our missions are quite alike! It is the mission of Missing Pieces to bring awareness to pregnancy loss by providing community support, resources, and care packages; forming a mindful community that bridges the gap for similar support services; and providing a platform that gives families the opportunity to share their stories online.
To learn more about missing pieces visit:
https://missingpiecessupportgroup.org/
Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: Miscarriagecare@gmail.com
P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242
To request a miscarriage care kit please email miscarriagecare@gmail.com with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.
Send us a Text Message.
In this episode we briefly summarize what's in both sizes of our Miscarriage Care Kits (small for after a loss is completed or post-D&C or large for an expectant or at-home miscarriage). If you or someone you know would like a kit, please visit https://www.miscarriagecare.com/care-kit-request.html
Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: Miscarriagecare@gmail.com
P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242
To request a miscarriage care kit please email miscarriagecare@gmail.com with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.
Send us a Text Message.
Early Pregnancy Loss Association's treasurer, Abby Strehle, tells the story of her miscarriage, which was also her first pregnancy, and how she was an EPLA "success story," as she was connected to our organization and provided with a Miscarriage Care Kit soon after her loss.
Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: Miscarriagecare@gmail.com
P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242
To request a miscarriage care kit please email miscarriagecare@gmail.com with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.
Send us a Text Message.
Only a few weeks into her first pregnancy, Haley Naida was surprised to discover she was experiencing a Missed Miscarriage. The following days, weeks, months, and years brought grief and confusion as she and her husband muddled through the spiritual, emotional, and physical suffering. But they also experienced great hope and healing through the gift of friendship. Haley's wisdom and grace shines through as she calls for doctors, women, the church, and our whole community, to step up and take care of those experiencing this loss.
Learn more about missed miscarriage and other types of pregnancy loss: EPLA Resources
Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: Miscarriagecare@gmail.com
P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242
To request a miscarriage care kit please email miscarriagecare@gmail.com with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.
As we approach Mother's Day many mothers are left grieving the children they never knew. Miscarriage not only robs us of our child's life, but sometimes it feels like it can rob us of our motherhood.
You are a mother. Your motherhood began at conception. If you are suffering this time of year know that both Bereaved Mother's Day and Mother's Day are for you.
Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: Miscarriagecare@gmail.com
P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242
To request a miscarriage care kit please email miscarriagecare@gmail.com with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.
Ten years ago our co-host, Emily, discovered that her first child, affectionately known as Baby, no longer had a heartbeat. It was the end of April and she and her husband were looking forward to a new house, new job, and new baby, only to be told Baby had died.
While Emily has told her story before this episode specifically remembers that first miscarriage and her short time with Baby. After 10 years her grief has changed, but it never went away.
Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: Miscarriagecare@gmail.com
P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242
To request a miscarriage care kit please email miscarriagecare@gmail.com with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.
Emily and Steph talk about a world where no one suffers miscarriage alone. What does that look like? How do we help women and families? What can we do to make this world a reality?
Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: Miscarriagecare@gmail.com
P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242
To request a miscarriage care kit please email miscarriagecare@gmail.com with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.
After suffering and recovering from miscarriage many women and families experience an urge to help others. In this episode Emily and Steph talk about ways to help your community, ways to help EPLA, and ways to meet the needs of other women and families suffering miscarriage around you.
Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: Miscarriagecare@gmail.com
P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242
To request a miscarriage care kit please email miscarriagecare@gmail.com with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.
Grieving is hard and when our friends are grieving we often want to fix it. But does that really work?
So if we can't fix grief, how do we help women as they walk through miscarriage?
We personally loved this little video about grief:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2zLCCRT-nE
Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: Miscarriagecare@gmail.com
P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242
To request a miscarriage care kit please email miscarriagecare@gmail.com with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.
The holiday season is over and 2024 is now on a roll. Christmas trees have been cleaned up and the family rooms reset to their "normal" arrangement. But what if life doesn't feel normal yet? What if you aren't ready for it to feel normal.
While we often look to a new year with hope and anticipation, this can be particularly difficult for women and families who suffered miscarriage in 2023. Leaving 2023 behind does not have to mean leaving your little one behind. You do not have to "get over" your baby or start fresh. Instead we look for ways to move forward, honor our grief, and remember our children.
In this week's podcast Emily and Steph revisit an old blog post written by Emily to talk about how they moved forward, but never moved on.
Check out the original post here.
Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: Miscarriagecare@gmail.com
P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242
To request a miscarriage care kit please email miscarriagecare@gmail.com with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.
The emotional, spiritual, and physical burden of miscarriage are painful enough. Then, often as women are starting to feel a little better the bills start coming.
Medical expenses can start to add up quickly. Depending on the her physical needs a bereaved mother might face bills for ultrasounds, emergency room visits, surgery, ambulance rides, doctors appointments, labs, tests, and even prescriptions.
In this episode Steph and Emily talk about their own experiences and the financial burden of loss.
Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: Miscarriagecare@gmail.com
P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242
To request a miscarriage care kit please email miscarriagecare@gmail.com with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.
Steph Gordon joins us to share her story of loss. From the moments she started bleeding, to taking misoprostal, and the days and weeks afterwards, the memories remain clear for Steph even though her loss happened over a decade ago.
Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: Miscarriagecare@gmail.com
P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242
To request a miscarriage care kit please email miscarriagecare@gmail.com with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.
Grief can sneak up on us during what we might have always known as the happiest time of the year.
Emily and Maria remember their first Christmases after loss. Emily felt deep sadness missing her baby, Maria suffered missing her baby bump. Whatever it is something is missing and something is not right.
If you are grieving this year we encourage you to give that grief space, share your feelings, and work through your loss.
Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: Miscarriagecare@gmail.com
P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242
To request a miscarriage care kit please email miscarriagecare@gmail.com with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.
Anne Bradstreet weathered the harsh New England Winters and the hard life of starting a society in the new world.
America's first poet, Bradstreet chronicles the joy and pain of her life experience. While she never lost any of her own children - she suffered the grief of infant death losing several of her grandchildren.
Her poetry points to the pain and grief of losing a little one all too soon. In this episode Emily and Maria look at two of her poems. Nearly 400 years later her grief connects mothers across centuries.
Mourning Poems:
https://wams.nyhistory.org/early-encounters/english-colonies/anne-bradstreet-mourning-poetry/
More about Bradstreet:
https://poetryarchive.org/poet/anne-bradstreet/
Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: Miscarriagecare@gmail.com
P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242
To request a miscarriage care kit please email miscarriagecare@gmail.com with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.
Emily and Maria take time to give thanks for all of the blessings we have at the Early Pregnancy Loss Association this year.
We are especially thankful for our listeners and we wish you a gentle holiday season full of healing and hope.
Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: Miscarriagecare@gmail.com
P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242
To request a miscarriage care kit please email miscarriagecare@gmail.com with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.
Women suffering early pregnancy loss are often unable to bury their babies, especially in cemeteries. This can be for many reasons sometimes they are unable to collect the body, the body was needed for testing, or they do not have the resources available bury their little one. Many women aren't even given the information necessary to move forward with how to proceed even if they wanted a burial.
But this problem tends to lead to a bigger question. If we want to participate in grief and mourning rituals as we grieve our miscarried children, what should those rituals look like? How do we acknowledge our grief and honor our little ones rightly.
In this episode Emily is joined by Holly Russell to talk about the history of grief and mourning rituals in America. With a background as a museum curator and librarian Holly offers insight to how we have dealt with death in America. We specifically look at the heavily ritualistic Victorians to see what we can learn from them.
Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: Miscarriagecare@gmail.com
P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242
To request a miscarriage care kit please email miscarriagecare@gmail.com with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.
For Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month we are resharing the special story of Kathryn Wales and her sweet daughter Theodora.
This episode originally ran September 20, 2022.
Kathryn joins us to share her story of the death of her dear Theodora at 16 weeks gestation.
While miscarriages most commonly occur during the first trimester of pregnancy, any pregnancy loss before 20 weeks is considered a miscarriage. Kathryn's story details the experience and grief of a second trimester miscarriage.
Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: Miscarriagecare@gmail.com
P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242
To request a miscarriage care kit please email miscarriagecare@gmail.com with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.
For a long time myths and misconceptions have haunted women suffering miscarriage. In this episode Emily and Maria tackle some these frustrating lies that pollute the miscarriage conversation.
People Have Misconceptions About Miscarriage, And That Can Hurt
Miscarriage Resource Packet
Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: Miscarriagecare@gmail.com
P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242
To request a miscarriage care kit please email miscarriagecare@gmail.com with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.
For Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month we encourage you to think about gentleness as you care for your heart and remember your little one. Wherever you are in your grief journey, this episode serves as a good reminder to care for yourself where you are.
We are republishing this episode from December 20, 2022 to help us through Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month and into the holidays.
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.
Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: Miscarriagecare@gmail.com
P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242
To request a miscarriage care kit please email miscarriagecare@gmail.com with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.
Emily and Maria talk abou how Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness (PAIL) Month has grown over the years. They also offer ways to remember our children and care for our hearts and bodies during this time.
Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: Miscarriagecare@gmail.com
P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242
To request a miscarriage care kit please email miscarriagecare@gmail.com with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.
Emily miscarried 9 years ago. Her mother, Linda, thought her daughter's experience and care might be different than her own loss nearly 30 years earlier.
But it wasn't. Emily was stuck with the same hushed culture and confusion surrounding miscarriage. There was a lack of educational resources and limited community support not much different than her own loss decades before.
Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: Miscarriagecare@gmail.com
P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242
To request a miscarriage care kit please email miscarriagecare@gmail.com with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.
Working through the trauma of miscarriage can take its toll on a relationship. Each person might experience grief differently, have different needs, or even different expectations. Emily and Maria talk about some of these challenges and look for ways to love, care, and support each other following early pregnancy loss.
Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: Miscarriagecare@gmail.com
P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242
To request a miscarriage care kit please email miscarriagecare@gmail.com with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.
The frontlines of miscarriage care are diverse. While medical professionals are an integral part of this, they are not the only ones faced with serving women and families after loss. Due to the nature of miscarriage and prenatal care, some women aren't even in the care of a doctor yet at the time of their loss. This leaves other caregivers with the challenge of providing emotional, physical, and spiritual support.
Some women turn to their church community, but are these churches ready to help?
Pastor Everett Henes joins Emily and Maria to talk about some ways the he and the Hillsdale Orthodox Presbyterian Church has responded to needs in his congregation.
Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: Miscarriagecare@gmail.com
P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242
To request a miscarriage care kit please email miscarriagecare@gmail.com with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.
The U.K. Government recently reviewed an independent report concerning was to improve care following early pregnancy loss. As a couple of Americans looking on, Emily and Maria take this episode to respond to the recommendations. Maybe there really is a better way?
So many of our stories talk about painful interactions with medical professionals, being under prepared to manage the physical experience, and difficultly processing the emotional and physical toll. These recommendations tackle these problems head on dignifying the woman, the fetus, and the whole family.
Everyone would do well to take the advice laid out in this review:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-response-to-the-independent-pregnancy-loss-review/government-response-to-the-independent-pregnancy-loss-review-care-and-support-when-baby-loss-occurs-before-24-weeks-gestation
Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: Miscarriagecare@gmail.com
P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242
To request a miscarriage care kit please email miscarriagecare@gmail.com with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.
Early pregnancy loss brings grief to the whole family. Often parents, in the midst of their own grief, are also left to guide their living children through the loss of a sibling. Later on families might face the difficulty of sharing their previous losses with children born after their miscarriage. Either way, talking about life and death with children might feel overwhelming, but it doesn't have to be.
In this episode Maria and Emily share resources that helped them navigate these conversations with their own children.
For more information visit:
After Miscarriage: How to Talk to Your Children About Pregnancy Loss
Talking to Children About Baby Loss
Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: Miscarriagecare@gmail.com
P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242
To request a miscarriage care kit please email miscarriagecare@gmail.com with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.
Starting with one bereavement basket in 2007 Forget-Me-Not Baskets has served Northeast Ohio and beyond for over 15 years. Since then they have given away thousands of baskets to families experiencing miscarriage, stillbirth, and infant loss.
Emily and Maria are joined by Sara Ringle to talk about the changing culture of pregnancy loss, moms serving moms, and ways we can reach people better.
Learn more about Forget-Me-Not Baskets: https://forgetmenotbaskets.com/
Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: Miscarriagecare@gmail.com
P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242
To request a miscarriage care kit please email miscarriagecare@gmail.com with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.
Only a few weeks into her first pregnancy, Haley Naida was surprised to discover she was experiencing a Missed Miscarriage. The following days, weeks, months, and years brought grief and confusion as she and her husband muddled through the spiritual, emotional, and physical suffering. But they also experienced great hope and healing through the gift of friendship. Haley's wisdom and grace shines through as she calls for doctors, women, the church, and our whole community, to step up and take care of those experiencing this loss.
Learn more about missed miscarriage and other types of pregnancy loss: EPLA Resources
Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: Miscarriagecare@gmail.com
P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242
To request a miscarriage care kit please email miscarriagecare@gmail.com with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.
This is our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY EPISODE and we want to honor this achievement with you. Be sure to listen for opportunities to give us your feedback and receive some special EPLA swag!
On June 7, 2022 we launched Hope Blooms: Surviving Miscarriage Together with our first episode: The Changing Culture of Pregnancy Loss: An Interview with Nancy Kingma, Part 1.
Over the last year we have kept the conversation going by featuring parents, nurses, doctors, and other professionals who are dedicated to caring for families who have experienced miscarriage. It has been a privilege and an honor to share this space with our guests and listeners.
As we look toward the next year we want to hear from you and we want to share with you. This episode is full of prompts to enter special giveaways.
Find us any time:
Hope Blooms Blog
Facebook
Instagram: @earlypregnancylossassociation
Twitter: @miscarriagecare
Email: Miscarriagecare@gmail.com
P.O. Box 179 Hillsdale, MI 49242
To request a miscarriage care kit please email miscarriagecare@gmail.com with your information. Care kits are distributed at no cost throughout the United States.
Kathy Petersen joins Maria and Emily to talk about her prespective as a Labor and Delivery Nurse and a loss mom herself.
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.
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
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!
"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.
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 miscarriagecare@gmail.com.
Please indicate which kit is needed and a name and address for the recipient.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
What is a grief coach? How is it different than therapy? Can we really live a happy life after grief?
Often it is hard to find the right support following early pregnancy loss. Maybe support groups aren't your thing, maybe therapy didn't work, often there isn't a one size fixes all solution to grief. So what else is out there?
Grief coach Teresa Reiniger explains her work and how she is equipped to help those suffering pregnancy and infant loss.
Want to hear more from Teresa? Check out her podcast Labor of Love: Dealing with Infertility and Loss.
Visit her website: Living After Grief
Emily Carrington sits down with her brother-in-law, Nick Carrington, to talk about walking through miscarriage with loved ones. Nick addresses his own grief watching his family suffer miscarriage while also recognizing his role as a support person.
Emily's first Thanksgiving after two miscarriages was very hard. In this episode Emily remembers the agony she felt passing her own due date, welcoming her new nephew, and failing to help in the kitchen.
While still in her first trimester, Maria's first pregnancy ended in a trip to the emergency department.
In this episode EPLA President and Co-Founder, Maria, talks about the physical and emotional experience of sitting in the ER with the grief of losing a baby.
In this episode from our archives of the Hope Blooms podcast, Emily talks with Dr. Marguerite Duane. Dr. Duane is co-founder and Executive Director of FACTS. A Board-certified family physician, she serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor at Georgetown University, where she directs an introductory course on natural or fertility awareness based methods (NFP/FABMs) of family planning.
She is also a physician with Modern Mobile Medicine, a direct primary care (DPC) house calls-based practice serving patients of all ages in the D.C. metropolitan area. She has served on the board of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) and the Family Medicine Education Consortium (FMEC).
In this episode, Dr. Duane explains various terms associated with pregnancy loss and common treatments following an early pregnancy loss. She also discusses popular questions from women and families following a miscarriage.
All information in this podcast is intended for educational purposes only. Information is not intended to diagnose, prescribe, mitigate, or cure any symptoms or disease. Please consult your doctor with any questions concerning your health.
A hushed culture surrounding pregnancy loss has not nurtured respect, privacy, and space; instead we have isolated women, encouraged shame, and failed to provide for their basic needs during and following early pregnancy loss.
To kick of Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month Emily and Maria discuss how an open dialog of early pregnancy loss can help us dignify these mothers and their families.
Warning: In this episode we candidly describe the physical experience of our miscarriages.
Kathryn joins us to share her story of the death of her dear Theodora at 16 weeks gestation.
In this edition of the Hope Blooms podcast, we revisit an archived episode from January 2019. Emily is joined by Patti Budnick of Share Pregnancy and Infant Loss Support to discuss their wonderful organization. Share is the national organization discussed in our last episode with Metro-Detroit Share.
Emily and Ms. Budnick talk about the needs of families after child loss and how Share seeks to address those needs.
Emily and Maria host Angie Winton of Metro-Detroit Share to talk about the benefits of support groups after pregnancy loss. In addition to these support groups, Metro-Detroit Share also offers many amazing services throughout Michigan.
Over the last three years EPLA and MDS have partnered to distribute 1,500 miscarriage care kits.
For more information check out: https://www.metrodetroitshare.org/
For national information visit: https://nationalshare.org/
In this episode Emily Carrington, EPLA Executive Director and Co-Founder, shares the story of her three miscarriages and what led her to start EPLA.
As a nurse and therapist, Nancy Kingma RN, LLP, LPC, NCC, offers her insight to the grief of grandparents and children experiencing pregnancy loss. This is a the fourth episode of a four part series.
This interview was recorded in 2019 as part of a four part series examining miscarriage care and the grief families experience after loss.
As a nurse and therapist, Nancy Kingma RN, LLP, LPC, NCC, offers her insight to the grief of a father experiencing pregnancy loss. This is a the third episode of a four part series.
This interview was recorded in 2019 as part of a four part series examining miscarriage care and the grief families experience after loss.
As a nurse and therapist, Nancy Kingma RN, LLP, LPC, NCC, offers her insight to the grief of a mother experiencing pregnancy loss. This is a the second episode of a four part series.
This interview was recorded in 2019 as part of a four part series examining miscarriage care and the grief families experience after loss.
As a nurse and therapist, Nancy Kingma RN, LLP, LPC, NCC, offers her insight to the changing culture of pregnancy loss during her 40 years of professional experience.
This interview was recorded in 2019 as part of a four part series examining miscarriage care and the grief families experience after loss.