Stepping Stones: A path to healing after the loss of a child is a blog written by Gabriel’s Mom, Emily. The blog provides many wonderful resources for families experiencing pregnancy loss. It also offers insightful, warm and caring posts. A quote that inspired the blog, “One of the secrets of life is to make stepping stones out of stumbling blocks”.
Here is the blog author, Emily’s story…
On May 8, 2002 I received the news no mother wants to hear. “I am sorry, but this baby does not have a heartbeat”. I spent the next 3 days in the hospital waiting to deliver my stillborn son, Gabriel. He was 21 weeks gestation and apparently died due to ‘cord accident”.
We were blindsided. I had no idea that in this age of modern medicine and in a country as prosperous as the United States that babies still died. I thought it was something that only happened in third world counties, or maybe back in the pioneer days. It is bad enough to lose a child- but to be faced with friends and family who don’t want to talk about it because it is ‘too sad’ or ‘time to get over it feels like I am losing him over again. Gabriel is my child- he just doesn’t happen to be with my family right now, although I have hope I will get to see him again, someday.
After finding SHARE, I realized there is a real need for awareness and memory items for babies that have died. The first item we were talking about on the message boards was a Pregnancy and Loss Awareness Ribbon car magnets, similar to the yellow “Support Our Troops” ribbon. I asked my husband (a graphic designer/illustrator) to create a design for us, which grew to include so many other sayings such as “Mommy of an Angel”, “Daddy of an Angel”, “Grandma”, “Parents”, “Family” and more. I started my site PregnancyLossRibbons.com to keep those orders organized.