Help us finish inking and colouring Stick, Stay, Grow!

My name is Myriam Steinberg. I’m a graphic novelist from Vancouver, Canada. I'm in the process of writing Stick, Stay, Grow, a graphic novel memoir about the conception, high-risk pregnancy, and life in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) of my twins after years of pregnancy loss and struggles with infertility.

We are in the last stages of the book and just need a final push of financial help from you, the wonderful community out there, to be able to finish inking and colouring the book (the book is completely written and drawn in black and white, and 59 out of the 290 pages are coloured).

Sponsor a page!

A $40 donation will get a page inked. Another $40 will get a page coloured. For anyone donating $40+, you'll get a very gratitude-filled credit at the back of the book, as well as our website, with the number(s) of the page(s) you helped come to life!

That being said, any amount you are able to donate is hugely appreciated. We will make sure to acknowledge your generosity on our website.

Imagine what these pages could look like...

...if they were coloured like this:

Here's more about Stick, Stay, Grow, and why it's so important to get it out into the world:

Although the twin pregnancy starts off wonderfully, things quickly take a dramatic turn for the worse. One of my twins' water broke at 18 weeks, and I had to fight for the survival of both my babies. From that moment, my life revolved around advocating for his life, and going back and forth between being on bedrest on my couch at home, the hospital's emergency department, and various doctor and midwife appointments. When the twins were born 2 months early, my daughter was discharged after a month of “feeding and growing,” but we spent 62 days in the NICU where my son fought valiantly for his life.

Seen from both my point of view and that of the twins, Stick, Stay, Grow gives a never-before-seen look behind the scenes of a tumultuous journey of donor conception, high-risk pregnancy, and life in the NICU.

My impulse to write “Stick, Stay, Grow,” stems from the lack of resources available to me about what I was going through, as well as the silences, taboos, and restrictions on a mother’s voice that shroud the world of maternal and fetal health. I was left feeling completely unique (and thus alone) in what was happening to me. Hearing other people’s stories would have helped make me feel less alone and broken in my journey. The open and honest sharing of personal stories are what frees the conversation, builds language around trauma, dispels the loneliness and pain of difficult journeys, and (hopefully) works to change hospital policies to be more inclusive and compassionate.

Throughout one’s life we are surrounded with images of perfect, simple pregnancies and births. When one embarks on starting a family, our expectation is that the experience will be idyllic. No one explains that countless pregnancies and births are far from the advertised images. And so, if something does go wrong, we are woefully emotionally and logistically unprepared.

Nothing can fully prepare you for the potential of long hospital stays, advocating for oneself and one’s babies in a high-stress medical environment, nor for how to survive life in the NICU (let alone the possibility of even ending up with a baby in the NICU). But with personal stories and shared experiences, with books that are not only accessible and entertaining, but also teach, advocate, and expose the unpolished realities of such stories, we can help give the power back to expecting mothers, normalize open discussion about ante and postpartum challenges, and reduce the shock and PTSD from such incidents.

Women’s voices need to be put to the forefront of obstetric care. I hope that Stick, Stay, Grow can become part of the canon of stories of mothers, children, and families who have braved the odds and advocated for themselves in a system rife with medical platitudes and protocol, where patient-centered care is not always the norm.

I am very excited to work with Marlee Spicer who is illustrating Stick, Stay, Grow. Her talent as an artist, coupled with her personal medical experiences and her compassion and understanding of a woman’s journey through pain, grief, and the medical system, is translated beautifully in the illustrations and my story shines with her artistry.

Stick, Stay, Grow is the follow-up to the award-winning graphic memoir, Catalogue Baby: A Memoir of (In)fertility (2021).

Visit the website here