Welcome to Pregnancy Loss Week 2010. The goal of this week is to serve women in the process of healing after pregnancy loss and to provide information to all of whom have been touched by it. Part of this end will be accomplished through a blog carnival. We received several entries through the open call for submissions and so will be showing them as we go through the week.

Women who experience pregnancy loss often characterize it as a feeling of lost innocence. The idea that a pregnancy automatically results in a baby at end of the day is gone forever. Today’s blog entries come under the umbrella of how losses effect us in terms of our mothering and our experience of subsequent pregnancies.

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Steph from Born Still writes about gratitude for her son Jack after loosing Sybella at 34 weeks followed by the fear that she’d loose him too in Mothering After Loss. ˝I feel incredibly lucky that I have a living child. The only thing worse than experiencing the death of your child is experiencing the death of your ONLY child…˝

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Pregnancy Trauma from Footprints On My Heart talks about the experience of being pregnant again after a 2nd trimester loss - ˝that feeling of not wanting to talk about it out loud—and feeling nervous, skittish, and like saying “stop!” if other people talk about it out loud (like, “do you actually think I’m going to have a living baby?”)….˝

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I Am So Thankful reminds us to cherish our living children even in the face of the trials and frustrations – ˝always try to stop and think how LUCKY I am, how truly BLESSED I am for the child who just let the indoor cat out or colored on the wall. I thank God as I wipe up broken eggs that my little helper “helped” me (next to impossible).˝

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Treina talked about how loosing her neonate son Arawn at 10 days old prompts her to cherish every day in He Opened My Eyes. ˝I suddenly understood that even though he was gone, I still had a duty to him. My duty was to love life and every experience I get the honor of witnessing.˝

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The Connected Mom talks about the roller coaster of pregnancy loss and how we should feel entitled to mourn that loss in Give Sorrow Words. ˝But these deaths for us are very real. As real as the loss of any grandparent, friend, or loved one.˝

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Fertility Flower talks about the cooling effect of pregnancy loss on subsequent pregnancies in Mothering After Miscarriage. ˝We all love our children. And women who experience pregnancy loss don’t love their children more than those who have problem-free pregnancies and living children. But I feel like women who’ve lost a pregnancy or a child soon after birth are painfully aware of how quickly things can go wrong.˝

***Pregnancy Loss Week 2010***

Monday: Pregnancy Loss, Mothering and the Next Baby

Tuesday: The Birth of Sybella Eve

Wednesday: Remembering the Losses and Extended Family

Thursday: The Doodles

Friday: Pregnancy Loss and Trying Again and Pregnancy Loss-inspired Art