The Untitled Pregnancy & Infant Loss Project

My husband Sam and I lost our two babies, Francis and Zoe, 11 months apart. I was only 16 weeks pregnant with Francis when I dilated and my water broke. He was our first child and because of him, we learned I had an incompetent cervix — a fancy way to say that my body can’t carry a pregnancy to full term without medical intervention.

 

A few months after we lost Francis, we found out I was pregnant again. This time around, my doctors took every precaution, including having me undergo two cerclages - a procedure to help prevent pre-term birth. Unfortunately, despite all the interventions, my water broke after only 25 weeks of pregnancy and our daughter Zoe was born.

 

Zoe lived for 47 days in the NICU until one night, we received the phone call every parent dreads, “We are having trouble establishing an airway. Zoe may not make it through this,” said the voice on the other line. We were fortunate the hospital was only 10 minutes away because Zoe was gone just minutes after we arrived. (You can read more of our story here)

 

We have been on a journey of grieving and healing ever since.

 

Along the way, we met others who’ve had similar experiences, encountered people who supported us in ways we didn’t expect, and were also on the receiving end of words that made the sting of our losses even worse.

 

In the first few years after our losses, we learned - through our own experiences as well as others’ - what is helpful for and what is needed by those who are experiencing the unimaginable loss of a child.

 

We want to take what we’ve learned - along with the skills and talents we both have as professional communicators and storytellers - and build an online space where people walking through the loss of a child can find resources and support.

 

Here are some things we have in mind:

Your donation will help cover the costs of video production, graphic and web design, as well as the time, labor, and materials needed to build this community and ensure those who need it the most knows it exists (i.e. promotion and marketing). It will also allow us to offer an honorarium to parents and families who will be interviewed or contribute to the website.

 

As a token of our gratitude, we offer the following gifts to those who will make this initial investment into our project.

From the very beginning, Sam and I have always known we wanted to take this dark time in our lives and turn it into something good - something that will honor our children's lives and help those walking the same path of grief and loss.

 

We know this is a big dream and we’re grateful for any support you can give. Thank you so much for your support in this next stage of our journey.