Prayers & Resources for Pregnancy After Loss

Prayers & Resources for Pregnancy After Loss

A Prayer for Pregnancy After Loss God of hope and healing, Help me to trust again. I know this is a new story, A different pregnancy, Another baby. But my heart still aches for the one I lost. I struggle to believe this journey Could end in goodness. Walk with me each day of this…

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Loved, Not Forgotten

after miscarriage

I find out I’m expecting again in March of 2021. Two bright pink lines on a pregnancy test stare back at me in our bathroom. I count nine months forward to a due date in November. November, a month for cinnamon and cloves, sweater weather, and now, my second child’s birthday. My breath catches. I…

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Why Taking Prenatal Vitamins is an Act of Faith

pregnancy after loss

Because you’ve been down this road before, when the line turned more and more pink, leaving you without a shadow of a doubt: you’re pregnant. Because you’re struck by the wildness of it all — nearly a year since the miscarriage. . . and this?? Because you’d finally settled into contentment, not the restless back…

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Supporting Yourself (Or A Friend) Through Miscarriage

miscarriage support

Miscarriage may be the most tragic or traumatic loss you have faced thus far. You might feel resentful or depressed; you may be struggling with your faith or in your marriage. You likely do not want to hear anyone else’s opinion on your situation or your grief. But you still have to interact with others…

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Prayer After Miscarriage

prayer after miscarriage

FOR THE WEEK AFTER MISCARRIAGE “Out of the depths I call to you, Lord; Lord, hear my cry!” (Ps 130:1–2) God of mercy, hear our prayer. From the depths of our grief, answer us. Our hearts break at the loss of our child. Our minds struggle to understand. Just days ago we held the hope…

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Called by the Swiss Alphorn Into the Arms of the Creator

God in Creation

Three years into living in picturesque Switzerland, I sat in a warm bath on a hot August afternoon trying to ease miscarriage contractions. I soaked in discomfort, both physically and mentally. Once again I found myself at the end of my rope, stuck at the bottom of a deep, dark pit that I didn’t have…

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Advent Week 1: Prayers & Practices for Parents

Advent practices for parents

Easy Advent Practices: Week 1 This year we’re sharing simple (and free!) ways to deepen your prayer as a parent in Advent: an activity to share with your children and a Scripture verse for you to pray later. Light a candle when you get up in the morning, in the bathroom as you get ready…

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Complicated Joy

pregnancy complicated joy

For all of the beauty found in celebrating the liturgical year, I find that marking milestones by these holy seasons and rituals has a tendency to make whatever experience that much more intense and emotional for me. Pregnancy announcements during Advent—potent. Witnessing conversion and Baptism at Easter Vigil—stick a fork in me. Gifts of selflessness…

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A Prayer for Miscarriage

a prayer for miscarriage

This prayer for miscarriage is featured in the book Pocket Prayers for Times of Trouble (Twenty-Third Publications, 2014). God of comfort, you who are mother and father of us all, hear my anguish at the loss of my child. My heart and body are broken, wracked with pain and grief. Let me bring you my cries and my confusion, my anger…

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the spiritual side of pregnancy after loss

pregnancy after loss

Pregnancy after the loss of a baby – following miscarriage, stillbirth, or infant death – is a daunting prospect.  From a distance I used to think “trying again” or “having another baby” must be a happy, hopeful, healing part of parenthood. (File this away under “Things I Didn’t Really Understand Until They Happened to Me.”)…

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how to talk to parents after their child died

Many readers have asked me how to talk to a friend or relative who lost a baby. What to say? What not to say? How to start? I know it’s daunting. All parties involved – especially the parents – wish the conversation never existed in the first place. But it’s so important to talk about death.…

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the trash tells the story

miscarriage story

A month ago I ran into a friend as we were both rushing into church from the whipping winter wind. She held the door for me, and I sprinted inside, breathing steam. As we shivered in the entryway, trying to warm up, she said, “Oh! I meant to tell you – I read your book. I…

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