Pregnancy & Infant Loss Remembrance Day

October 15th is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day.

Those of us who have experienced a miscarriage, stillbirth or death of a newborn think of our little angels all the time.  But today is a special day of remembrance, and a day to raise awareness.  Before experiencing my own miscarriage, I didn't realize how common pregnancy loss was.

It can be a frightening, painful, exhausting and very isolating experience to lose a baby.  Though nobody can take the pain away, women and couples experiencing such loss shouldn't have to feel alone.  Many people don't talk about pregnancy loss, for a myriad of reasons.  When I experienced my own loss last year, I didn't exactly want to publicize my own misery for my family members, friends and colleagues to hear about.  One of the reasons why I shared my story through this blog was to try to relate to other women who experienced similar loss to mine.  I thought if I could help just one woman not feel quite so alone, exposing my own fears, frustrations and grief for the world to read about would be worthwhile.  It turns out I did connect to several women, going through losses similar to mine.  Though we'd never met in real life, our lives overlapped in ways we'd each never imagined in our worst nightmares, and we helped one another cope.  {Ladies, you know who you are -- thank you for your support!!}  And through it all I learned that keeping my miscarriage a secret was not only unnecessary, but a disservice to other women out there who were going through it, and who felt like I did.  Miscarriage is more common than most people know {click to visit link}.  So I'm here today to say, you are NOT alone.

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The unfortunate fact is that more of the women in your circles than you realize have been through or will go through pregnancy loss at some point in time.  Some more than once.  There is absolutely no reason to be embarrassed or ashamed.  Many people won't want to or will have a difficult time talking about sad events like pregnancy loss, and believe me, I get that.  But the more we start talking about these statistics, the less alone our fellow women will feel if the unthinkable happens to them and they experience their own loss.

If you have experienced your own loss, you have my deepest sympathy.  Your angel baby is in my thoughts today.