“I’m not picking up a heartbeat.” These are the most dreaded words an expectant mother can hear. As joy and anticipation dissolve into confusion and grief, painful questions refuse to go away: Why me? Did I do something wrong? How will this affect my ability to have a family? What do I say to my children without scaring them?

With the warmth and compassion of a Licensed Professional Counselor and writing as a mother who has suffered the loss of a baby and a sixteen-year-old son, Pam Vredevelt offers sound answers and advice. As an expert in love and loss, Pam gives reassuring comfort to any woman fighting to maintain stability and faith in the midst of devastating heartbreak.

Although 26,000 babies are stillborn in the United States every year, stillbirth continues to be a taboo subject. Life Touches Life shatters the silence that has hidden a bane as old as humankind. Lorraine Ash met that silence head-on when, after a trouble-free pregnancy, her baby was declared dead on what was to be her date of birth. After a C-section, Ash fought a fever that raged at 104 degrees and she almost succumbed to the silent B-strep infection that had robbed her daughter of life.

Awed by the experience, which was to change her forever, Ash sought solace and perspective in all the old places and found little relief. In her book she tears down the walls of misunderstanding that isolated her in her hour—indeed years—of need. "Shattering the silence is essential if mothers are to integrate their loss into their daily lives," Ash writes. "A child who only existed inside her mother, can continue to spiritually exist there and the two can remain close."

Ash discusses the inner changes she faced after the stillbirth of her daughter and delves into spiritual questions that shook her soul. The final message: Epiphanies emerge from the stuff of everyday experience. Hope is here.

Every year, some two million parents in the US suffer the death of a son or daughter. The unnatural sequence of the child's preceding the parent in death creates a wrenching loss and overwhelming emotional and spiritual disorientation. Most of these bereaved parents find relief from their isolation only in the company of others like themselves. The Grieving Garden offers support, understanding, and, ultimately, comfort and hope from those who have sowed the same tears over the death of a child.

The Grieving Garden is a ground-breaking book that invites bereaved parents into personal conversations with a diverse group of fathers and mothers who share the same loss.

After the death of her six-week-old son, Liam, Katie Willis Morton embarked on a courageous search for solace and understanding. The Blue Poppy and the Mustard Seed invites readers to share in her voyage as she travels the world and the landscapes of her own experience.

The Blue Poppy and the Mustard Seed helps us confront the universal truths of love and loss that we all will eventually and inevitably encounter. This book will be a comfort to anyone who has faced a tragic loss, but not only that, it takes us all on a rich journey, through joy, suffering, and ultimately to hope, in a way that is quietly beautiful and, above all, utterly life-affirming.

**The Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller** Dear Reader, When I found myself experiencing a motherhood that I never expected, one that I was terrified of living, I didn't know how I would carry on being 'normal'. I didn't know how much I would long for people to say my son Teddy's name, to not treat him like he didn't exist. Maybe you're in this boat too, or maybe you want to support someone who is?

Whatever your reason, I hope our story goes a little way to help. Love, Elle What do you do when the unthinkable happens? Elle Wright had an admittedly easy pregnancy - her scans went well, she and her baby were healthy throughout, and in May 2016, she and her husband welcomed their son, Teddy, into the world. Just a few hours after giving birth, they woke to find a nurse holding a cold and unresponsive Teddy, who had stopped breathing during the night. The happiest day of Elle's life had turned into every parent's worst nightmare, and she had to let her beautiful baby boy go.

A Memoir of grief after life-changing loss. A Companion to those in the trenches of grief. A Journey to authentic integration, peace, and hope.

Crushed by the weight of life-changing loss, how do we find the strength to carry unbearable grief with peace? This is a book that will pierce your heart and leave you changed. It is a journey from debilitating grief to a new depth of healing and hope.

With raw authenticity, Brianne Edwards shares her story of the loss of her son and gives readers a powerful encounter with the heart of a bereaved mother. Yet A Thousand Pounds is much more than a memoir.

In moments when adding to your family feels hopeless and futile, we will hold onto hope for you until you can find it again. In the pages of this book, 22 infertility warriors share their messages of love and courage with others on this difficult and emotional journey.

Losses, big and small, turn your world upside down. What’s Your Grief? will help you through all of them. Many life changes need to be grieved, from the loss of a loved one to the loss of a job, from a breakup to a relocation, and all the rest of life’s ebbs and flows. In What’s Your Grief?, mental health professionals Eleanor Haley and Litsa Williams help you examine, investigate, and move through the complex but universal experience of grief.

In this “volume of rare sensitivity, penetrating understanding, and profound insights” (Rabbi Earl A. Grollman, author of Living When a Loved One Has Died), Dr. Kenneth Doka explores a new, compassionate way to grieve, explaining that grief is not an illness to get over but an individual and ongoing journey.

When your baby dies before birth, you experience an extraordinary grief. You never get to hear your baby's voice nor see life in your baby's eyes. Still, your baby lived. Your baby came into this world. Your baby's existence is important and real.

This small book offers tailored information and support for parents experiencing the early hours, days, and weeks that follow the death and birth of their beloved baby. Stillbirth is always a devastating shock, a heartbreaking collision of birth and death that leaves parents helpless. In this accessible book, you will find comfort and ideas for affirming and honoring your precious baby's life.

This memoir is the true story of parents who were told that their unborn baby had an incurable heart condition, confronting them with an impossible decision: to attempt risky surgeries to give their baby a chance at a longer life, or to continue the pregnancy and embrace their baby's life as it would unfold, from conception to natural death.

The unforgettable journey that ensued would change not only their lives, but also the lives of everyone who came in contact with them. The book also addresses larger issues including questions about heroic medicine; attitudes and practices regarding pregnancy and infant loss; and new dilemmas created by advances in prenatal testing, including what to do if a test reveals a fatal problem.

Organized into fifty-two short chapters, Bearing the Unbearable is a companion for life’s most difficult times, revealing how grief can open our hearts to connection, compassion, and the very essence of our shared humanity. Dr. Joanne Cacciatore—bereavement educator, researcher, Zen priest, and leading counselor in the field—accompanies us along the heartbreaking path of love, loss, and grief. Through moving stories of her encounters with grief over decades of supporting individuals, families, and communities—as well as her own experience with loss—Cacciatore opens a space to process, integrate, and deeply honor our grief.

The heartache of miscarriage, stillbirth, or infant death affects thousands of U.S. families every year. Empty Cradle, Broken Heart, Third Edition offers reassurance to parents who struggle with anger, guilt, and despair during and after such a tragedy.

In this new and updated edition, Deborah Davis encourages grieving and strives to cover many different kinds of loss, including information on issues such as the death of one or more babies from a multiple birth, pregnancy interruption, and the questioning of aggressive medical intervention. There is also a special chapter for fathers as well as a chapter on "protective parenting" to help anxious parents enjoy their precious living children. Doctors, nurses, relatives, friends, and other support persons can gain special insight.