Reflections by Luna

Monica Taylor is a mom from Dromore South, Dromahane Co Cork Ireland. I met her through one of my many support groups for women/families who have felt the loss of a pregnancy/infant/child. She was willing to share her story in my blog series from a crossed the ocean. A lot of women suffer from miscarriage. Some might not even know they are having a miscarriage; others have what is called “missed miscarriage” where it is undiagnosed until later in the pregnancy. Some women have miscarriages and then have a baby while others have consecutive miscarriages and try hard for their rainbow. While some of these moms with consecutive miscarriages may never know why they are happening, they long for the end of the tunnel when they finally get to hold that little one, their rainbow through the storm. Monica had 4 consecutive miscarriages after 3 healthy pregnancies with no explanation, one of which was twins so in total she lost 5 little angels.   Her and her husband met at a soccer practic...

In the course of my research for this documentary and blog series, I have talked to many mothers who have experienced loss in one form or another. Whether during early pregnancy, mid pregnancy, late pregnancy, right after birth or when the baby was older due to health reasons or SIDS.   I have compiled some advice from different mothers who have experienced loss. They want to share their wisdom with not only those who are or have experienced loss but also with those who haven’t experienced but might know someone who has. These all came from various women, from different cultures and backgrounds. Like snowflakes in the snow, no 2 women experiencing loss are the same. It always happens for a different reason. Everything happens for a reason and god has his plans its nothing you did, you will be blessed again when it is your time, don’t be afraid to talk about it (or not want to talk about it) lean on those close to you don’t be afraid to turn to counseling My best piece of ...

Like my previous article talking about advice for mothers/families experiencing a loss, I also compiled a list of things that women who have experienced a loss want others to learn not to say during or after their loss. These are things that don’t help us feel any better and even sometimes make us feel worse. One thing I have noticed while going through my own stillbirth as well as talking to other moms, who have experienced a loss, is people seem to think that losses farther along in pregnancy are harder than those early on. Or that if you have a loss after you already have kids that it’s okay and you should just focus on the other children.   I surveyed some women who have experienced losses and these are the things they wish people WOULD NOT say when they experienced their loss. ·         At least you weren’t that far along” , will your next baby replace the one you lost, when are you going to try again? ·      ...

Sky Simone is currently pregnant with her rainbow baby after a very rough miscarriage early on in 2018. She wants to share her story to help bring awareness to pregnancy/infant loss and to help her in preparation for the birth of her rainbow. We recently did a maternity session for her to celebrate the upcoming arrival of her rainbow baby. We choose the zinnia field because the flowers were all the colors of the rainbow and we also did some in the sunflowers. Sky and her husband started trying to get pregnant in Feb 2019 and this is her story: “rather that’s when we stopped using protection. Nothing happened for 3 months, so I started tracking ovulation and got pregnant the first month trying. May 2019. I had to star rearranging my life right away and was very excited.. but unfortunately we were told on June 28 that there was no heartbeat, just a fetal pole with an 8mm sack and a yolk, but no fetal pole or heartbeat.. They did say that it ‘could’ be too early, but that an 8mm sa...

 An angel in the book of life wrote down my baby’s birth. Then whispered as she closed the book, “too beautiful for earth”. – Unknown My goal of this documentary is to help spread awareness of the 1 in 4 women/families who suffer a infant loss. No matter what part of pregnancy whether early on, late term or at the very end of the pregnancy a loss is still a loss and it is in no way anyone's fault. This is a continuation of the first part (post link back to part 1) and includes the birth stories of the 7 women I worked with back in May as well as more about my story. MY STORY CONT: September 10, 2016 was supposed to be one of the greatest days of my life. I had dropped off my younger 2 girls at a friend’s house and headed out to my doctor’s appointment for my 20 week ultrasound. I had a gender reveal photoshoot planned that afternoon as this pregnancy would be the tiebreaker in our family. We were even at 2 boys and 2 girls and hadn’t even expected to get pregnant again. I had...