Gorgeous baby photography

Looking at Maria Murray’s gorgeous photos of newborns makes me wish Nicholas was still this small! Guaranteed to put a large smile on your face…

Grief is not a mental illness

Grief following the death of a loved one isn’t a mental illness that requires the help of psychiatrists and antidepressants, according to editors of The Lancet, who oppose “medicalizing” an often healing response to overwhelming loss…

“Grief is not an illness; it is more usefully thought of as part of being human and a normal response to the death of a loved one.” … for the majority of the bereaved, “doctors would do better to offer time, compassion, remembrance and empathy, than pills.”

Read more…

Remembering

Go ahead and mention my child,
The one that died, you know.
Don’t worry about hurting me further,
The depth of my pain doesn’t show.
Don’t worry about making me cry,
I’m already crying inside.
Help me to heal by releasing
The tears that I try to hide.
I’m hurt when you just keep silent,
Pretending she didn’t exist.
I’d rather you mention my child,
Knowing that she has been missed.
You ask me how I am doing.
I say “pretty good” or “fine”.
But healing is something ongoing.
I feel it will take a lifetime.

~ Elizabeth Dent

Four years

To my darling Sofia,

Four years have passed since you drew your last breath.
Four years that seem both like an eternity and only a moment ago.
Four years my arms have ached to hold you, my nose longing for your sweet smell, my ears desperate to hear you cry.
Always my gorgeous baby, in my heart, in my thoughts, in my soul.

Lots of love,
Mummy xxxx

Looking back

I didn’t write any posts here about being pregnant before Nicholas was born. There were a few reasons for this; one of them was not wanting to ‘jinx’ anything. I’ve already written about doing superstitious things while claiming not to be superstitious at all (and by the way I still have the champagne cork, and kept the two pence in my bag throughout my successful pregnancy). It’s the things you do to get you through.

I have written posts but not published them yet, my thoughts and feelings getting through another pregnancy while hoping with all my  might to be able to bring a baby home from the hospital. I will post them (when Nicholas gives me time!).

Our new angel

I’d like to introduce you to the main thing that has helped to ease my pain so much – Sofia’s little brother, Nicholas; born the March 2nd at University College Hospital London, weighing 3.68 kg and measuring 53 cm. Our angel on earth.

Two hours old

Mother dies after doctor overdose of misoprostol

A lawyer died after she was given a dose of a labour inducing drug 16 times the level stated in national guidelines, an inquest heard.Suzanne Ballantyne, 47, a partner at Capsticks Solicitors, was being treated at St George’s Hospital in London, after her unborn child died in the womb 39 weeks into her pregnancy.

Doctors gave her an 800-microgramme dose of misoprostol, as recommended by the Trust’s in-house protocol, in an attempt to induce labour and retrieve the foetus. However, the drug is known to put patients at increased risk of tears to the uterus.Guidelines from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists – published just four days before Mrs Ballantyne’s death last November – recommend doses of no higher than 50mcg.

Read more…