Bulger, Sandra (2017) Writing down your sorrow: a healing process after miscarriage, stillbirth and newborn losses. In: Gair, Susan, and van Luyn, Ariella, (eds.) Sharing Qualitative Research: showing lived experience and community narratives. Routledge Advances in Research Methods, 21 . Routledge, Abingdon, Oxon, UK, pp. 163-187.

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Abstract

[Extract] This story begins with my own lived experience of stillbirth. It’s been 16 years since my twin boys, Tristan and Timothy, were born at 24 weeks' gestation on a rainy January day in the summer of 1999. My little baby girl, Georgia Fawn, was stillborn at 24 weeks on Boxing Day of the same year. Several late-term miscarriages followed. When grief consumed me, I found it hard to find my own voice to speak of my needs or find practices or persons that might have given me comfort. I understand that when parents are faced with the truly heartbreaking news that their baby has died, the emotional turmoil and grief that follows can be overwhelming and difficult to come to terms with.

These experiences triggered a long journey of grief, loss and healing for me. I know that many parents have similar experiences, yet their grief often is hidden and unshared outside of the family. The silence, associated with a pregnancy that has not unfolded with all the expected joy – whether through miscarriage, stillbirth, birth complications or newborn death – is tangible. The curtains are drawn on neonatal loss and nobody talks about that vacant nursery, or the profound grief. At least that is how I felt.

Item ID:	46495
Item Type:	Book Chapter (Research - B1)
ISBN:	978-1-138-95902-6
Related URLs:	http://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/46253/
Date Deposited:	23 Jan 2017 23:41
FoR Codes:	44 HUMAN SOCIETY > 4499 Other human society > 449999 Other human society not elsewhere classified @ 100%
SEO Codes:	97 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 970116 Expanding Knowledge through Studies of Human Society @ 100%
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