The following may provide support immediately after the birth of your baby, or if your baby died shortly after birth (called neonatal death):
~Birth Plans
Real, printable birth plans for every kind of loss, including bonding with your baby, how to bathe a stillborn baby, and more.
~Get support around you:
- Find Doulas/Photographers (including certified SBD doulas) This link also connects to birth plans and is a very important link.
- Birth Education & Preparation
- Information for your loved ones (how they can support you, what they might offer for you)
~Immediate Postpartum:
The Welcoming:
M0M-Specific:
- General Postpartum Health resources, including postpartum lochia/bleeding, the importance of nutrition, and more
- lactation professionals, facing lactation decisions and more
Baby & Family Specific:
- questions about baby’s skin, physical condition or appearance
- holding, swaddling, photographing baby and family (including siblings)
- bathing a stillborn baby
- prints, molds, other keepsakes
The Farewell:
- deciding between your farewell options during labor or immediately postpartum can feel jarring and traumatic. Having a supportive team who has relationships within the community and who speak with validating language is important.
- one of the hardest experiences for the family is the actual time the baby’s physical form is carried away by a provider affiliated with the farewell: this could be a nurse bringing the baby to the hospital morgue, or a funeral home staff member placing baby in a box, or the couple leaving the birthing room with the baby’s physical form still there. Being aware of this is the only way to even begin to soften such trauma. Having the option to hold one of the blankets that once touched baby, or clothing that has, or a teddy bear, may be a way to brave through such an impossible transition.
You might plan ahead and look at the information for After the Birth, including planning your Farewell Celebrations (resources, laws, and information for ways to say goodbye).
Farewell Celebrations (resources, laws, and information for ways to say goodbye, keepsakes, jewelry and more)
Read stories from others (and share yours) – just visit the right sidebar, and see them labeled by week and by additional circumstances.
Postpartum can be such an overwhelming time.
Have support for the Welcoming, the Farewell, and the Healing Journey,
all right here at stillbirthday.
In the First Weeks after Birth
Farewell Celebrations (resources, laws, and information for ways to say goodbye, keepsakes, jewelry and more)
- Blessingway/ Sacred Circle
- Find photographers for your farewell celebration
Other Important Aspects:
Your Physical Health
- General Postpartum Health resources, including postpartum lochia/bleeding, the importance of nutrition, and more
- lactation professionals, facing lactation decisions and more
Your Emotional/Social/Psychological/Spiritual Health
- Guidance for Family, Friends and Co-Workers
(You can share A Gentle Announcement of Birth & Bereavement, which will guide your friends, coworkers and family into the loved ones section. Just print, cut, fold in half. Write the recipient’s name or a note onto the outside white portion of the card). You can make something similar yourself – a Birth & Bereavement announcement, or you might prefer the Western New York Perinatal Bereavement Network‘s New Care Card - Organ donation resources are extremely limited and so is the timeframe in making such decisions after baby is born. IIAM, Anencephalie.org are two resources – stillbirthday highly recommends Purposeful Gift for trustworthy wisdom and guidance.
- Returning to Work/ FMLA (see Grieving Dads)
- Return of First Menstruation and other factors (see Mother Perspectives)
- Unsubscribe Baby Mail
- Filing Taxes
- Support for Siblings
Longer Term Healing Journey
For the Journey:
- Emotional/Spiritual Support (including for the dad & surviving/subsequent children)
- Crisis Lines, Books, Websites (some by country)
- Long Term Resources including support groups (by city, state, and country)
- Get information on Ending Fertility in Loss, Multiple Losses, and Trying to Conceive
- Information for Friends/Family
Various Other:
- Join our Mentorship Program (as a mentor or mentee)
- Rate Your Mentor
- Rate Your Doula
- Information – and guidance – for your Friends/Family
- Let your providers know that stillbirthday has resources for them (there are wonderful printable resources for them in our About SBD Doulas page).
Get involved and visit our additional resources, including our Connections, Sharing Your Story, Stillbirthday Cakes, and more.
Read stories from others (and share yours) – just visit the right sidebar, and see them labeled by week and by additional circumstances.
