*National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day*
Today is _National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day_. While he was in office, President Ronald Reagan designated October 1988 as _Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month_, which he began to remember pregnancy loss and infant death including, but not limited to, miscarriage, still birth, SIDS or the death of a newborn.
Prior to social media, I never knew that such a day/month of remembrance existed, but I remember and often think about the two babies we lost to miscarriages in 1995 and 1996. I think about them in relation to the other young adults in our family and at the Kingdom Hall, and I wonder whether they were boys or girls, what they would have looked like, and what kind of personalities they would have had. …show more content…
How hard it was for me to attend baby showers, for a long time afterward. Many people didn't know what to say, or didn't say anything at all, and one person actually told me that it was for the best, because "now isn't the time to be having babies anyway."
I felt so conflicted. I'd always loved babies, and I wanted to be happy for those who were having babies, but it was hard not to feel jealousy instead.
Let's be clear about one thing. No matter how much you love and appreciate the child or children you have, they *can not* and *do not* _take the place of_ or somehow _make up for_, the loss of the others. Like any other death, miscarriage is a loss. It is the loss of your hopes and dreams for that little person, and the love that you already felt for them, love that was growing every day from the time you found out you were expecting them.
_"It has been said, 'time heals all wounds.' I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone."_ ~Rose
Today is _National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day_. While he was in office, President Ronald Reagan designated October 1988 as _Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month_, which he began to remember pregnancy loss and infant death including, but not limited to, miscarriage, still birth, SIDS or the death of a newborn.
Prior to social media, I never knew that such a day/month of remembrance existed, but I remember and often think about the two babies we lost to miscarriages in 1995 and 1996. I think about them in relation to the other young adults in our family and at the Kingdom Hall, and I wonder whether they were boys or girls, what they would have looked like, and what kind of personalities they would have had. …show more content…
How hard it was for me to attend baby showers, for a long time afterward. Many people didn't know what to say, or didn't say anything at all, and one person actually told me that it was for the best, because "now isn't the time to be having babies anyway."
I felt so conflicted. I'd always loved babies, and I wanted to be happy for those who were having babies, but it was hard not to feel jealousy instead.
Let's be clear about one thing. No matter how much you love and appreciate the child or children you have, they *can not* and *do not* _take the place of_ or somehow _make up for_, the loss of the others. Like any other death, miscarriage is a loss. It is the loss of your hopes and dreams for that little person, and the love that you already felt for them, love that was growing every day from the time you found out you were expecting them.
_"It has been said, 'time heals all wounds.' I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone."_ ~Rose