Sometimes she asks me a question out of nowhere and it catches me by surprise.
“Do you have pictures of him,” she asked?
I pushed my lips together and thought about it. I considered lying to her for about half a second.
“I do,” I said. “Do you want to see them sometime?”
I didn’t know if she was ready. At 5-years-old, I didn’t know if she was old enough to actually see him and be okay with it. After all, he didn’t look normal.
“Yes,” she said without wavering.
“Okay,” I agreed and vowed that I would show her her brother’s pictures…someday.
That conversation happened over a year ago. She still hasn’t seen his photographs.
More recently she said to her young brother, “You know we have a brother, right?”
Her tone was sweet, educational and filled a wisdom somewhere beyond that of a 6-year-old.
“Oh! A brother,” my younger son exclaimed! At 3, he is rather oblivious to the ideas surrounding his older sibling.
“Yes, he lives in heaven,” she told him.
That was it.
It’s these little moments that I miss him most. The moments where my daughter wants to see him or talk about him too.
It’s like her constant wondering about him makes me snap out of it – the life I live where I no longer think of him on a regular basis.
The truth is, I wonder about him too and her innocent, questioning brain digs up the reminder each time. I wonder what the three of them would have been like together – the adventures, the arguments and the memories that would be a part of their childhood had we actually been a family of five.
I see his birth in flashes now – the bright lights, my husband’s eyes closed, him gripping my hand, the sheet over my legs… I hear the tone in my doctor’s voice as he tells me to push. Then I hear nothing. It’s silence as he is born.
No crying. No shouts of joy.
I am 1 in 100. I am the mother of a stillborn baby.
According to the March of Dimes, 1 in 24,000 pregnancies is stillborn, or 1 in 100. October is Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness month and like my daughter’s questions, it always catches me off guard even though it comes around each year.
I don’t focus on it like I used to, so it creeps in now, slowly. It used to hit me like a ton of bricks and I’d allow myself to wallow a bit. But now, over seven years out, I just let it wash over me in waves, some that lap softly past me and some that hit me straight in the face as I come up for a breath through the busyness of life.
The moments with my daughter come like that too. Depending on her questions, depending on my days, I simply answer and move on. Other times we have a longer discussion.
Sometimes it’s what she needs to understand. Sometimes it’s what I need her to understand. Sometimes I realize she understands so much more about life and death than other kids her age do – certainly more than her clueless, little brother – and I wonder if I’ve burdened her with it, like many “replacement” children often are.
But she sees me. She sometimes sees me when I’m sad about him, even though the moments are few and far between now.
And in those moments, I know I’m so lucky to have this child who gets how much it must hurt me to be without him.
She doesn’t know about the others yet. The four miscarriages in between her and her siblings that led us to be a family of four and not nine. I’m not just 1 in 100 but I’m also 1 in 4. Mother to four miscarried children in addition to our stillborn son.
Someday I will tell her. But that day is far away because it also carries with it an additional burden of wondering if I’ve sentenced her to the same pain just through sheer genetics. My hope is science will be smarter by the time she’s ready to have a baby.
Science only gets you part of the way though. The idea that you gotta have faith isn’t just a whim in a song. It’s a fact if you have also miscarried, had a stillborn baby or lost a child. Hope may always float, but the force that gets it to the top again is faith.
After our son was stillborn we decided we were done. We were done trying and fighting and hoping and praying…
But if any of that had really been true, we would have always been 1 in 100. We would have remained a sad statistic and we would have never had the intelligent, light-filled girl that reminds me each day how wonderful, fragile and magical life can be.
She may carry a few more burdens than most children her age, but it’s better that she’s here and carrying them versus never to have been born at all. And I can help with the load.
During this month of remembrance, if you’re struggling after a loss my advice to you is this: Read the science, find the faith and hold onto the hope until it gets back to the top and you can come up for a breath. You need all three to get through it and to move on to the point where you can have the strength to once again try.
My personal statistics may only be 2 out of 7, about 29 percent, but that’s a lot better than living with the label of 1 in 100. I may be a mother of a stillborn baby and a woman who has miscarried, but now I’m also a survivor too.
As we remember this month I carry all the labels with me – that of loss and that of success.
And, because we tried again, because we had her, I also now get to carry the most important label of all; mother.
To read more about our full loss story, here in Stillborn Still Loved. Here are tips for coping with your first year.
For more parenting experiences, click here.
I love your last label, that of mother. That is what it is all about. I cried reading your story and your statistics. I hope those statistics change to the better in our future.
This is such a difficult subject to discuss and is always heartbreaking. I have never went through this but have family members and friends who have. Never really get over the loss.
I can’t even imagine going through something like this. I am glad there are organizations that can help at least, and that you are a survivor.
I can’t even imagine the pain you went through and still do when you hear your daughter’s innocent conversations. I hope there are scientific advances in the future that can help prevent this.
What a difficult topic to discuss smh. Nobody wants to have to talk about it but it happens everyday unfortunately.
I myself was trying to have a baby and the waiting and frustration is so depressing. How much more when it happens and its because of the unexpected circumstances it takes away from you. Prayers for you and your family at this tough times.
Oh my gosh this is such a hard thing to share but so many women go through this. I am so sorry you dealt with this but so happy you have your little one!
This is such a difficult and painful subject for many women. Thank you for sharing your heartfelt story. I am loving your last label… mother! That’s the most important one of all!
Going through these things sounded like it must have been devastating and I can understand why those moments of sadness still come. I’m glad your daughter was such a ray of light for you after all you went through..
My heart ache reading your post. It reminds me of the pain my mom went through after losing my brother.
Such an heartbreaking experience, but you are handling it beautifully
I’m so hearbroken reading this, so many people go through this and it shouldn’t happen, sending so much love your way and thank you for sharing it
I’m so sad just reading this and can’t imagine how it must hurt. Hopefully you’ll be able to help someone else who has had this experience as you write about it.
I can’t imagine what you went through during that period and it seems your children are learning from it. So difficult to express.
I am so deeply sorry for your loss. That must have been unimaginably difficult. I’m glad you are a mother now.
This is such a difficult subjetc to discuss…sending much love your way x
I can’t even imagine…. this was a tear jerking read, for sure. But eye-opening and much needed, too. My heart goes out to you!
I am so sorry for your loss and how it continues to hurt. I am glad you allow your daughter to talk about him and that you answer her questions. You are a wonderful Mommy.
I can’t even imagine. But how sweet of your daughter to explain it that way to your son. I’ll bet you remember that forever.
Losing a child is never an easy thing. It hurt my heart to read this and know you had to and still are, suffering through the loss.
This is a very difficult subject. I could never imagine the lost of a child. I’m sorry for your loss.
I am so sorry for your loss, it is such a difficult topic to discuss. By opening up you are healing.
I am so sorry for your loss. Thank you so much for sharing your story. Someone is going to find comfort in your words and help with coping with loss.
Such a hard thing to go through! So sorry for your loss!
I am so sorry for your loss. Can’t even imagine. Thank you for sharing your story. I can only guess this may help women in similar situations know they are not the only ones.
Thank you so much for sharing your story. I’m so sorry for what you’ve been through.
This is such a difficult subject to discuss, but I know that sharing your story will help so many families going through similar situations. Sending you so much love!
Thank you for sharing your story. It is one often left unspoken. Big hugs to you!
I want to hug you after reading this post! What a difficult time you have had to go through, but now you have shared how you dealt with these emotions and others will be able to lean on you.
I am so sorry. Although I have 8 kids I too have suffered a couple of losses and its hard, no matter what. Sending lots of love and healing.
I love that there are people who acts as a support system to people who undergo on this kinds of situations. I can’t imagine myself getting through the same situation. I salute every people like you who have gone through this.
I can’t even begin to imagine the pain of losing a child. I am so sorry to anyone who has gone through this.
I am so very sorry for your loss. Thank you for bravely telling your story and sharing ways to cope.
I can’t imagine the child loss. It is not easy topic to discuss. You are brave. Yes mother’s label is always great.
Dearest Rachel, You are such a beautiful person, wonderful mom, and I am honored to have gotten to know you and spend time with you, albeit too little! Thank you for sharing your story of love and motherhood. You are amazing. Looking forward to the next peanut gang adventure! ?