A Different Kind Of Mother – Surviving the Loss of My Twins – Christine Howser

A must-read for bereaved parents, this is the author’s personal story of intense grief, depression and ultimate renewal of faith after losing her only children, twin infants, Steven and Timothy, within days of each other in October, 1999.

A Piece of My Heart: Living Through the Grief of Miscarriage, Stillbirth, or Infant Death – Molly Fumia 

The death of a child is one of life’s most devastating experiences. Since it is contrary to the expected order of nature, most people remain confused about how to deal with their complex feelings. In A Piece of My Heart, author Molly Fumia chronicles the death of her infant son and her eventual recovery from it. Readers will empathize with the emotional journey that begins in denial and guilt, moves through remembrance and reconciliation, and ends in resolution and healing.

A Silent Love: Personal Stories of Coming to Terms with Miscarriage – Adrienne Ryan

Many people who have suffered miscarriage, stillbirth, or neonatal death have been made to feel they shouldn’t talk about it. As a result, their grief has often been compounded by guilt, shame, and sometimes anger. Now, with great sensitivity, Adrienne Ryan, who has herself suffered multiple miscarriages, explains why this grief is different than any other. This collection of more than fifty real-life stories–written by mothers as well as fathers and grandparents–give voice to that grief in all its emotional and psychic complexity. A Silent Love will offer support and hope to those who have lost a child, and will be an invaluable guide for friends and family.

About What Was Lost: 20 Writers on Miscarriage, Healing and Hope – Jessica Berger Gross 

In this intimate anthology, twenty writers explore the grief and sadness—and hope—that living through a miscarriage can bring. Featuring such notable writers as Pam Houston, Joyce Maynard, Caroline Leavitt, Susanna Sonnenberg, and Julianna Baggott, among many others, About What Was Lost is the only book that uses honest, eloquent, and deeply moving narrative to provide much-needed solace and support on the subject of pregnancy loss. Today, as many as one in four pregnancies ends in miscarriage. And yet, many women are surprised to find that instead of simply grieving the end of a pregnancy, they feel as if they are mourning the loss of a child. Taken aback by their sorrow, they seek solace in similar perspectives—only to find that a silence and lingering stigma surrounds the topic. Revealing a wide spectrum of experiences and perspectives, this powerful collection offers comfort and community for the millions of women (and their loved ones) who experience this all-too-common kind of loss every year.

All Angels Have Wings: One woman’s journey through grief to hope – Luleta Brown

The poems in All Angels Have Wings explore the gamut of emotions that Luleta experienced and struggled with. It was truly a journey through grief to hope and to finally embracing life again in a real way.

All That Is Seen and Unseen – Elizabeth Petrucelli

takes you on a journey through the heartwrenching experience of losing a child in the first trimester. This loss is typically brushed aside due to society’s opinion that a loss this early doesn’t matter. Women are often left to grieve in silence. The story is full of Elizabeth’s most private journal entries. You will walk alongside her as she introduces you to her life and learns of her pregnancy. Despite the years she suffered through infertility, her pregnancy was a complete surprise and Elizabeth was unhappy due to the timing. She quickly has a change of heart and began to love the new life growing inside her. . However, like many other women who endure pregnancy losses, she had a looming feeling she would lose her baby. Elizabeth takes you into the exam rooms with her as she watches her baby grow, only to discover that her feelings of loss were confirmed just eight weeks into her pregnancy. Elizabeth will walk you through her devastation, grief, and recovery. All That is Seen and Unseen comes to an end with resources and information regarding miscarriage including a common complication from a routine procedure that may interfere with a woman’s future fertility as well as what women can do to help honor the baby they lost.

An Exact Replica of a Figment of my Imagination: A Memoir – Elizabeth McCracken

“This is the happiest story in the world with the saddest ending,” writes Elizabeth McCracken in her powerful, inspiring memoir. A prize-winning, successful novelist in her 30s, McCracken was happy to be an itinerant writer and self-proclaimed spinster. But suddenly she fell in love, got married, and two years ago was living in a remote part of France, working on her novel, and waiting for the birth of her first child.

This book is about what happened next. In her ninth month of pregnancy, she learned that her baby boy had died. How do you deal with and recover from this kind of loss? Of course you don’t–but you go on. And if you have ever experienced loss or love someone who has, the company of this remarkable book will help you go on.

With humor and warmth and unfailing generosity, McCracken considers the nature of love and grief. She opens her heart and leaves all of ours the richer for it.

Angels in My Heart – Kathleen Olowin

Every year in the United States alone one million women experience the heartache of miscarriage. These numbers are staggering, yet most of these families feel alone in their grief. Through the sharing of the author’s own journey of miscarriage and motherhood, Angels in My Heart reaches out to grieving parents offering a hand to hold on the journey of healing. Each person’s story is different, however there are feelings and experiences that are shared by all who have lost a baby. Why are people saying these hurtful things to me? Will I ever get off this emotional merry-go-round? When am I going to get over this? Based on conversations with other bereaved parents, Kathleen provides insight and practical support for common experiences.

Beyond Tears: Living after Losing a Child – Ellen Mitchell 

Meant to comfort and give direction to bereaved parents, Beyond Tears is written by nine mothers who have each lost a child.  This revised edition includes a new chapter written from the perspective of surviving siblings.

The death of a child is that unimaginable loss no parent ever expects to face. In Beyond Tears, nine mothers share their individual stories of how to survive in the darkest hour. They candidly share with other bereaved parents what to expect in the first year and long beyond:
*Harmonious relationships can become strained
*There is a new definition of what one considers “normal”
*The question “how many children do you have?” can be devastating
*Mothers and fathers mourn and cope differently

*Surviving siblings grieve and suffer as wel

*There simply is no answer to the question “why?”
This sharing in itself is a catharsis and because each of these mothers lost her child at least seven years ago, she is in a unique position to provide perspective on what newly bereaved parents can expect to feel. The mothers of Beyond Tears offer reassurance that the clouds of grief do lessen with time and that grieving parents will find a way to live, and even laugh again.

By Grace of Mourning – Corry Roach

Although I’ve worked with the dying and their families as a nurse for nearly forty years now, each experience touches me. With both my parents deceased, as well as my only sister, who died far too soon from cancer, death has also touched my personal life. Over the years, friends have also died as a result of illness, suicide and accidents.

However, the experience with death that changed my life most profoundly was that of my beloved  infant daughter Lindsay. I wrote my book, By Grace of Mourning, at the time of her death but only published it recently, since individuals who’d read the manuscript insisted it was very helpful to them in their mourning process.

Dear Cheyenne, A Journey into Grief: A Collection of Angels & Miracles, A Celebration of Motherhood… – Joanne Cacciatore

The book contains poetry, material appropriate for memorial services, grief information and a self help section. Also a look at men and women’s different grieving styles.

Discovering Hope – Anna Sklar 

Discovering Hope chronicles the first ten years on a journey of healing after stillbirth.
Anna’s middle son, Caleb Joshua Freedom Sklar, was stillborn on May 21, 2003.
Writing about the experience has been the best way for Anna to process the grief she felt over the unexpected loss of her baby. In this book she offers journal entries, blog posts, articles, poems, thoughts, and reflections for you to read.
During the last ten years, Anna has encouraged and supported countless people on a similar journey of grief. She found her greatest source of healing came through connecting with others and sharing their stories. Discovering Hope contains a handful of those stories, contributed by other women who have discovered some hope weaved in with the sadness and pain of their loss.
For Anna, there were no answers for the loss; there were no reasons why her tiny Caleb died so suddenly. She shares her struggle to sift through the confusion and the heavy sadness. She comes alongside you while you do the same, and offers to walk and talk with you on the journey of healing.
Faith was the greatest source of hope Anna discovered on the journey. Through praying, reading the Bible and talking with other Christians, Anna was able to find some peace about Caleb’s death. Some days she was shouting at God, some days she was weeping, and some days she was calm and peaceful. He took it all from her and comforted her like only a Heavenly Father could.
Anna has searched for ways to make Caleb’s tiny life meaningful. This book is one of those ways.
Proceeds from the book will be used for charity donations, free distribution of copies of the book, and family mission trips.

Expecting Sunshine – Alexis Marie Chute

After her son, Zachary, dies in her arms at birth, visual artist and author Alexis Marie Chute disappears into her “Year of Distraction.” She cannot paint or write or tap into the heart of who she used to be, mourning not only for Zachary, but also for the future they might have had together. It is only when Chute learns she is pregnant again that she sets out to find healing and rediscover her identity―just in time, she hopes, to welcome her next child.

In the forty weeks of her pregnancy, Chute grapples with her strained marriage, shaken faith, and medical diagnosis, with profound results. Glowing with riveting and gorgeous prose, Expecting Sunshine chronicles the anticipation and anxiety of expecting a baby while still grieving for the child that came before―enveloping readers with insightful observations on grief and healing, life and death, and the incredible power of a mother’s love.

Forever Silent, Forever Changed: the Loss of a Baby in Miscarriage, Stillbirth, Early Infancy – A Mother’s Experience and Your Personal Journal – Kellie Davis 

Forever Silent, Forever Changed was written for Kellie’s son, Kyle, born still on November 10, 1998 and for families and friends of those who have experienced losses similar to hers. In this book, you will find Kellie’s journey through loss, grief and acceptance. Also, she has included pages the reader can use as a journal to help guide her on her own healing path. A must read for parents, family, friends and health care providers.

Ghostbelly – Elizabeth Heineman

This isa personal account of a home birth that goes tragically wrong—ending in a stillbirth—and the harrowing process of grief and questioning that follows. It’s also Heineman’s unexpected tale of the loss of a newborn: before burial, she brings the baby home for overnight stays.
Does this sound unsettling? Of course. We’re not supposed to hold and caress dead bodies. But then again, babies aren’t supposed to die.
In this courageous and deeply intimate memoir, Heineman examines the home-birth and maternal health-care industry, the isolation of midwives, and the scripting of her own grief. With no resolution to sadness, Heineman and her partner learn to live in a new world: a world in which they face each day with the understanding of the fragility of the present.

Grieving the Child I Never Knew – Kathe Wunnenberg

When the anticipation of your child’s birth turns into the grief of miscarriage, tubal pregnancy, stillbirth, or early infant death, no words on earth can ease your loss. But there is strength and encouragement in the wisdom of others who have been there and found that God’s comfort is real. Having experienced three miscarriages and the death of an infant son, Kathe Wunnenberg knows the deep anguish of losing a child. Grieving the Child I Never Knew was born from her personal journey through sorrow. It is a wise and tender companion for mothers whose hearts have been broken–mothers like you whose dreams have been shattered and who wonder how to go on. This devotional collection will help you grieve honestly and well. With seasoned insights and gentle questions, it invites you to present your hurts before God, and to receive over time the healing that He alone can–and will–provide. Each devotion includes: * Scripture passage and prayer * ‘Steps Toward Healing’ questions * Space for journaling Readings for holidays and special occasions also included

How to Expect What You’re Not Expecting – Jessica Hiemsta and Lisa Martin-Demoor

One size fits all does not apply to pregnancy and childbirth. Each one is different, unique, and comes with its share of pleasure and pain. But how does one prepare for an unexpected loss of a pregnancy or hoped-for baby? In How to Expect What You’re Not Expecting, writers share their true stories of miscarriage, stillbirth, infertility, and other, related losses. This literary anthology picks up where some pregnancy books end and offers diverse, honest, and moving essays that can prepare and guide women and their families for when the unforeseen happens.

Heaven Is For Real – Todd Burpo

When Colton Burpo made it through an emergency appendectomy, his family was overjoyed at his miraculous survival. What they weren’t expecting, though, was the story that emerged in the months that followed—a story as beautiful as it was extraordinary, detailing their little boy’s trip to heaven and back.

Colton, not yet four years old, told his parents he left his body during the surgery–and authenticated that claim by describing exactly what his parents were doing in another part of the hospital while he was being operated on. He talked of visiting heaven and relayed stories told to him by people he met there whom he had never met in life, sharing events that happened even before he was born. He also astonished his parents with descriptions and obscure details about heaven that matched the Bible exactly, though he had not yet learned to read.

With disarming innocence and the plainspoken boldness of a child, Colton tells of meeting long-departed family members. He describes Jesus, the angels, how “really, really big” God is, and how much God loves us. Retold by his father, but using Colton’s uniquely simple words, Heaven Is for Real  offers a glimpse of the world that awaits us, where as Colton says, “Nobody is old and nobody wears glasses.”

Heaven Is for Real will forever change the way you think of eternity, offering the chance to see, and believe, like a child.

I Didn’t Miscarry Her….She Died – Michelle Myers-Walters

is a vivid and creative expression of what it’s like to lose an unborn child and heal from such a loss. Through a combination of real life stories, poetry, song lyrics, letters, quotes, and personal observations, author Michelle Myers-Walters meets every experience with refreshing honesty and comfort for the hurting mother. It’s ok to be scared, to have your faith shaken, to be upset at insensitive doctors or ignorant friends, and to rely on the warm arms of family support. You did not mis-carry your baby, and the situation is not your fault. You are still mourning a loved one, regardless of how small they may have been.

Journeys: Stories of Pregnancy After Loss – Amy L. Abbey, Editor

Not all pregnancies end with a healthy child going home from the hospital in the arms of its happy parents. There is a little recognized reality that many pregnancies end in pre-delivery death in utero. There are numerous reasons for such tragedies, but often the loss is unexplainable. Amy L. Abbey as author and editor, has gathered the stories of almost a dozen families, and shares how the families coped with loss and went on to have successful pregnancies.

Knocked Up, Knocked Down – Monica Murphy Le-Moine

Monica Murphy LeMoine is used to writing postcards from strange, faraway places. After years of traveling around the world with her Peace Corps sweetheart-turned-husband, she finds herself on a blissfully ignorant journey toward new parenthood. But when the pregnancy ends before it’s supposed to, Monica is abruptly launched into a different kind of world that nothing in life has prepared her for. It is up to Monica to navigate this strange land of almost-parenthood, make sense of her own confusing grief for real and imagined lives lost, and-ultimately-learn to move forward without someone she loves. A memoir told in postcards, Knocked up, Knocked Down is about finding solace in the most surprising places when life knocks you to the ground. And if you have ever lost a loved one, this uplifting story will help you move upward, too. “Monica Murphy LeMoine worked all over the world with the Peace Corps and grew up in a family that never had time to ‘sit around and wallow.’ She never comes close to that in this deeply and darkly funny, anti-trauma memoir. Refusing to accept the grief package defined by well-meaning counselors who said she’d never recover, this book calmly and firmly replies, ‘bull#@%&!”

Life Touches Life – Lorrainne Ash 

A mother’s story of stillbirth and healing
Unable to find answers when her only child, Victoria, was stillborn, Lorraine Ash came to write the book she longed for. It is a road map from pain and chaos to understanding and acceptance. Drawing on great thinkers, personal loves, and the wisdom of everyday events, Ash explains how she made it through this difficult emotional terrain after her daughter’s stillbirth and how her experiences led to richer ways of seeing, being, and loving in the world.

Losing Emily – Tammy Anderson 

“Losing Emily: A Journey Through Stillbirth to Finding Peace and Embracing New Hope” is a powerful and moving must read story based on the author’s own heartfelt, painful journey of surviving the stillbirth of her daughter Emily at 37.5 weeks of pregnancy. Losing Emily reaches out to help grieving parents as they embark on their journey of healing by offering words of comfort and peace, a much needed connection to someone who has been there and understands the struggle and true depth of the unimaginable pain of losing a baby. Whether your loss be from a miscarriage, stillbirth or early infant death; there is no greater heartbreak than losing your much loved and wanted child. Through Emily’s tragic death, her legacy lives on by sharing a message of new hope to help bereaved parents as they move through the difficult process of healing while finding new strength and courage to carry on without your child.

Losing You Too Soon: Finding Hope After Miscarriage of the Loss of a Baby – Bernadette Keaggy

The Keaggys’ experience mirrors that of many who have experience stillbirth or miscarriage and don’t know where to turn for hope and healing.

In Losing You too Soon Bernadette writes with candor about the hurt and confusion that shook her, Phil, and their marriage as they dealt with the eventual loss of five babies. Her story does not offer simple solutions, but an example of finding the strength and courage to go on. Interspersed with the Keaggys’ story is practical advice for dealing with and recovering from loss. Poignant letters from other couples reveal different facets of grief and coping.

Many people who have experienced such a loss know how hard it is to find someone can truly understand what they are going through. For such readers, or those who seek to comfort them, Losing You to Soon is a source of profound encouragement and a reminder that God promises grace and hope in the midst of even the deepest pain.

Love Letters to Miscarried Moms – Samantha Evans

Love Letters to Miscarried Moms is the story of one woman’s journey, the same journey that each mother who miscarries begrudgingly embarks on–the excitement of pregnancy, the overwhelming, unfathomable devastation and loss, the grotesque details that no one speaks of, the uphill road toward hope and freedom–and the Savior who walks beside her every step of the way. “Though she stumbles, she will not fall, for the Lord upholds her with His right hand” (Psalm 37:24).

Miscarriage Mom: The Unspoken Realities of Miscarriage and How to Cope – Kristi Parisi

Miscarriage Mom is the must read book on miscarriage! Having experienced six miscarriages, author Kristy Parisi understands the pain and grief of losing an unborn child. Packed with compelling personal stories and actionable advice, Miscarriage Mom offers heartfelt insight into the unforeseen realities surrounding miscarriage and suggests ways to cope. Miscarriage Mom openly addresses the emotions, reactions, and experiences to be expected after a miscarriage. Honoring your unborn baby, returning to work, and dealing with others’ reactions are just a few of the many topics addressed. With a genuine desire to help, Kristy wrote Miscarriage Mom for any woman who has suffered the pain and devastation of miscarriage. Including a special man-to-man talk written by Kristy’s husband, Vincent, Miscarriage Mom gives readers a clear look into what to expect now that you’re not expecting.

Naming the Child: Hope-filled reflections on Miscarriage, Stillbirth and Infant Death – Jenny Schroedel

Hope and healing for those who suddenly find themselves in the most terrible sort of grief 

For those who have experienced miscarriage, stillbirth, or the death of a child within the first year, this gentle resource offers:

• stories of hope and wisdom;
• practical advice and guidance, based on the experience of many;
• comfort and ways to honor and remember.

Naming the Child creates a community of love and support for bereaving parents and siblings, written with a light touch and sensitive spirit.

Notes for the Everlost – Kate Inglis

Part memoir, part handbook for the heartbroken, this powerful, unsparing account of losing a premature baby will speak to all who have been bereaved and are grieving, and offers inspiration on moving forward, gently integrating the loss into life.

Inglis’s story is a springboard that can help other bereaved parents—and anyone who has experienced wrenching loss—reflect on emotional survival in the first year; dealing with family, friends, and bystanders post-loss; the unique survivors’ guilt, feelings of failure, and isolation of bereavement; and the fortitude of like-minded community and small kindnesses. Inglis’s unique voice—at once brash, irreverent, and achingly beautiful—creates a nuanced picture of the landscape of grief, encompassing the trauma, the waves of disbelief and emptiness, the moments of unexpected affinity and lightness, and the compassion that grows from our most intense chapters of the human experience.

Once More We Saw Stars – a Memoir – Jayson Greene
As the book opens: two-year-old Greta Greene is sitting with her grandmother on a park bench on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. A brick crumbles from a windowsill overhead, striking her unconscious, and she is immediately rushed to the hospital. But although it begins with this event and with the anguish Jayson and his wife, Stacy, confront in the wake of their daughter’s trauma and the hours leading up to her death, Once More We Saw Stars quickly becomes a narrative that is as much about hope and healing as it is about grief and loss. Jayson recognizes, even in the midst of his ordeal, that there will be a life for him beyond it–that if only he can continue moving forward, from one moment to the next, he will survive what seems unsurvivable. With raw honesty, deep emotion, and exquisite tenderness, he captures both the fragility of life and absoluteness of death, and most important of all, the unconquerable power of love. This is an unforgettable memoir of courage and transformation–and a book that will change the way you look at the world.

Our Beautiful Babies Dear: Enduring the Loss of Miscarriage – Lindsey Salloway 

Lindsey Salloway presented her husband, Tosh, with a wonderful gift for their fifth anniversary: two pink lines. Finally pregnant after months of trying, Lindsey and Tosh were thrilled. The planning started that night-what they would name the baby, how they would decorate the nursery, and when the baby’s due date would be. Lindsey and Tosh, like every other pregnant couple, look forward to kissing their tiny baby’s face and counting fingers and toes. For Lindsey and Tosh, however, that dream would not come true.

In her poignant memoir, Lindsey shares the story of her journey through three miscarriages in a span of ten months – from the ecstatic moments after she learned she was first pregnant to the heartbreaking instant when she realized she had lost each baby. As she recalls each experience, Lindsey provides a realistic look into the darkness of the pain and suffering as well as the light of hope and healing as she faced the complicated emotions that accompany miscarriage.

Our Beautiful Babies Dear shares one woman’s story of loss, endurance, and hope as she endures the pain of miscarriage and finds strength in survival.

Our Heartbreaking Choices: Forty-Six Women Share Their Stories of Interrupting a Much-Wanted Pregnancy – Christie Brooks 

This book is about ending a pregnancy due to a poor prenatal diagnosis or due to serious maternal health complications. This book contains 46 personal stories, each one from a woman who decided to interrupt a much-wanted and oftentimes much-planned pregnancy. There is very little societal support for parents who make this decision, which leaves most parents to deal with their sadness and grief alone.

Our Only Time – Stories of Pregnancy/Infant Loss with Strategies for Health Professionals – Amie Lands

Our Only Time was created to motivate, inspire and show appreciation for medical professionals through experiences told from a patient’s perspective. Through heartfelt stories, families share the sacred time spent with their baby — whether in utero or after birth — and offer insights into how medical professionals positively impacted their experience. Also included are recommendations on how best to be supportive of patients and what types of actions to avoid during this devastating experience.

Through these incredibly intimate stories of loss, medical professionals can better understand a grieving family’s experience, and become equipped to support bereaved parents when they leave the hospital without their baby. Medical professionals will come away with new insights on how to guide parents, empowering them to have the least amount of regret during this loss, and allowing for the greatest chance of healing in their grief as they re-enter the world.

Our Stories of Miscarriage, Healing with words – R Fradet and K Fitton

Fifty contributors (including 4 men) share vivid accounts of how miscarriage has affected their lives. By articulating often unspoken feelings and experiences, each provides needed emotional support and comfort to others.

Still: A Collection of Honest Artwork and Writings from the Hear – Stephanie Paige Cole 

Still. There is nothing in the world that affects us more than the death of a loved one, especially a child. Stephanie Cole found that out first hand when her unborn daughter died unexpectedly one week after her due date. Stephanie stumbled through the death of her daughter, using creative expression as a tool to navigate her way though the darkness. This book is a collection of the writings and artwork that she created in response to her loss. “Still. is the poignant exposition of the reality that besets more than 25,000 pregnant families each year in the US. Stephanie Cole’s portrayal of the year following Madeline’s death is vivid and stark, and speaks to the disbelief and emptiness of the 50% of parents who never discover why their unborn baby died. Stephanie’s year deprived of an infant is illustrative of the challenge families and those who care for them face when experiencing the loss of an unborn child. Each child is a special chapter in every family’s life, even if that chapter is but a few, heartbreaking pages of limited memories. Still. is important reading for those who experience pregnancy loss. Perhaps it is more important reading for those who have not shared the experience but wish to understand.” Dr. John J. Botti, Maternal-Fetal Medicine “Stephanie’s honesty and candor are refreshing in a society that wants everything, even mourning, wrapped up in some sort of neat package. She allows us to walk her path with her, acknowledging that everyone’s journey will be unique and that we will eventually accept what will become our new normal.” Beth Gauthier, Mother to Mark (stillborn, Feb 2007) “Stephanie writes from a place of honesty and raw emotion. Throughout her writing she weaves the dreams she and her husband had for their precious daughter Madeline. Her words help the reader understand the depth of pain felt by parents who experience the death of a much loved and hoped for baby. A great read for any professional who wants to gain a better understanding of the emotions and feelings of a grieving parent.”

Sufficient Grace – Kelly Gerken

Sufficient Grace chronicles not only one family’s painful journey through the stormy sea of grief after the loss of three of their five children, but also shares the lessons learned about the true faith and grace God gives to His people, even in the midst of life’s storms. It also tells about the birth of Sufficient Grace Ministries, and includes helpful information for families walking through grief after the loss of a child.

The Shadow of an Angel: A Diary of a Subsequent Pregnancy Following Neo-Natal Loss – Marion Deutsche Cohen

A diary of a Subsequent Pregnancy following a Neo-Natal Loss.

The Twenty-four Weeker: Bentley’s Story – Laura Deckard Dobbins

Laura and her husband, Hans, are expecting their first child amidst new jobs, a new home, and their first year of marriage. The Twenty-four Weeker: Bentley’s Story is one mother’s journey through pregnancy, loss, and spirituality. This short book is a true account of life’s sourest lemons.

They Were Still Born – Janel C Atlas

Stillbirth, defined as the death of an infant between 20 weeks’ gestation and birth, is a tragedy repeated thirty thousand times every year in the United States. That means more than eighty mothers a day feel their babies slip silently from their bodies, the only sound in the delivery room their own sobs. Eighty stillborn babies a day means heartbroken families mourn the death of children who will never breathe, gurgle, learn to walk, or go to school.

In 2006, Janel Atlas became one of those mothers who left the hospital with empty arms; her second daughter, Beatrice Dianne, was stillborn at 36 weeks. Reaching out for comfort, she realized a dire need shared by so many others like her, and so was born a collection of new essays by writers each sharing their firsthand experiences with stillbirth. Atlas includes selections not only from mothers but also fathers and grandparents, all of whom have intimate stories to share with readers. In addition, there are selections that answer many of the medical questions families have in the wake of a stillbirth and that offer the latest research on this devastating loss and how it might be prevented. Grieving parents will find in these pages the comfort of knowing they are not alone on this painful path, validation of their babies’ lives, and guidance from those who have suffered this tragedy. In addition, They Were Still Born both inspires and shows readers how to honor and remember their own babies and stories of loss.

Three Minus One: Parents’ Stories of Love and Loss – (edited by Sean Hanish & Brooke Warner) 

This book is a collection of intimate, soul-baring stories and artwork by parents who have lost a child to stillbirth, miscarriage, or neonatal death. Inspired by the film Return to Zero. 

Waiting with Gabriel – Amy Kuebelbeck

When Amy Kuebelbeck was five-and-a-half months pregnant, she was told that the child she was carrying had a fatal heart condition. She and her husband were then faced with an impossible decision: give their baby a chance at life–and with it, enormous pain and suffering–or let their baby die naturally, shortly after birth

Walking the Labyrinth of My Heart : A Journey of Pregnancy, Grief and New born Death – Dianna Vagianos Armentrout

Walking the Labyrinth of My Heart: A Journey of Pregnancy, Grief and Infant Death breaks the lonely, silent suffering of bereaved mothers facing infant and pregnancy loss. Dianna Vagianos Armentrout details her pregnancy journey with her daughter, Mary Rose, who died an hour after birth of trisomy 18, a random genetic illness described as “incompatible with life.” For five long months of pregnancy, she knew that her baby would not live and thrive, planning a funeral and seeking hospice for her unborn daughter. The heaviness of this grief, which most women bear alone, is shared here and will comfort mothers who have experienced miscarriage, stillbirth and infant death. Through journal entries, essays and poetry, Dianna invites the reader to process grief and honor the life of the child, no matter how brief. In addition, readers will learn how to support the bereaved by remembering the baby and pregnancy. With eloquent language, fierce honesty and a record of the rawness of grief, readers in the midst of their own suffering will recognize the path that bereaved parents walk. Dianna’s experiences with infertility, motherhood, infant loss and miscarriage infuse her writing with compassion for all women. Finally there is a book to honor the pregnancy, baby and loss, loving the children past their death, loving the wombs that nurtured them and accepting the sacred path of mothering children whose bodies are broken, but whose souls are intact and perfectly whole. This book shines with love and the knowledge that even the briefest life is holy. Read it. Share it. Spread the word. We no longer have to grieve our infants and pregnancies alone.

We Lost Our Baby – Siobhan O’Neill White and David White

A frank, touching joint memoir. Twelve weeks and three days into a second pregnancy, the Irish authors were faced with the brutal finality of miscarriage. This slim yet illuminating volume records their struggle to cope with it. . . Along with its openness, this account excels in providing the perspectives of both partners. Each, at times, serves as witness to and participant in the other’s grief, and their separate recollections of the same event underscore both the magnitude of its effect on their relationship and the vital importance of communication when coping with loss. A balm for any whose lives have been touched by miscarriage.

What!! You’re Pregnant Again!! Bite Me!! – Sandra Zacchino

What! Your Pregnant Again! Bite me! Just by the title alone you can most certainly get the feel of my intentions of this book. If you have had a miscarriage or have experienced infertility you know it is not an easy subject to discuss. This book pretty much says it all, even the feelings that are kept under wraps so to speak. You know the frustration, the jealousy, the rage, all these emotions that are all too often overlooked. You need to express them, and if you can’t then read this book. You will realize you are not alone, not only that but after reading this book and finding out how the dealt with these issues I can almost guarantee your going to feel good about yourself, however you may be quite hungry too. Okay you have to read the book to know what I’m talking about, so buy it, read it, and know there is hope, and if that doesn’t help then go shopping. (works for me) 

When the Bough Breaks – Bobbi Junior

Is more than a story about devastating loss. It is a gift of words tracing the heart of a mother through labour, delivery and unanticipated grief. Bobbi’s simplicity of tone draws the reader in and offers a unique and honest insight into the devastation that threatens to turn a mother’s heart inside out. There are no formulas between the covers of this book on how to grieve the loss of a child, no ten easy steps to recovery. There is only truth and encouragement, inspiration and hope as Bobbi and her young family, seek to find a new normal.

You Are Not Alone: Love Letters From Loss Mom to Loss Mom – Emily R Long 

This book is a simple book of love written for you, a grieving loss mom, from other loss moms who have also heard those life-altering, soul-shattering words, “I’m sorry there is no heartbeat” or “I’m sorry, your baby is gone.” In the pages of this book, we share letters of love from our hearts to yours with the hope that, maybe, in the darkest, loneliest hours of grief, you will find a little bit of comfort in the words of another mother who has been where you are now. Our deepest desire is for you to know that you are not alone. We are with you. Although we desperately wish we didn’t have a reason to, we lovingly welcome you to our community of sister-mothers of loss. Let us wrap you in love and be a light in the darkness of grief.

You Are the Mother of All Mothers – Angela Miller

A message of hope for the grieving heart.