The unique challenge with traumatic events on the family-building journey (my shorthand for Trying To Conceive, are pregnant , healing postpartum or parenting your child[ren]) is that there are 2 layers to the trauma. 1 is the real/perceived danger to yourself and 2nd is the real/perceived danger to your child. Traumatic events include loss of embryos when you're doing IVF to pregnancy complications to neonatal loss and anything in between. The triggers are often internal, bo

For many, being part of conversations about infertility, loss and miscarriage , high risk pregnancy, preterm delivery, life in the NICU, or parenting a child with medical needs can be uncomfortable. It's hard to hear about our favorite people struggling to grow their family. It's heartbreaking to hear about an innocent child's life threatened or gone too soon. So, we fill our discomfort with words. Advice, encouragement or stories we think will help. Sometimes they do. But mo

I love to hear from you! I love to address your questions and concerns with Listener Q & A episodes, like today’s show. Join us as we cover several topics that are relevant to birth trauma, preemie development, postpartum depression, and the work of healing. In this episode... Dealing with the uncertainty of the development of a preemie when you aren’t sure what to expect [2:24] Experiencing postpartum depression with stillbirth, miscarriage, or ectopic pregnancy [15:48] Gett

There are many nuances to grief. The loss of a child is extremely painful grief, but you have to trust that your body knows how to heal itself. It’s important that you reach out for support when you need professional guidance. Let’s jump into this difficult topic together. In this episode... #1 We don’t speak accurately enough about the experience of pregnancy loss and saying goodbye to a life lost too soon. [9:28] #2 Grief hurts and feels awful. [11:00] #3 Our body has a bui

One of the most interesting aspects of my work in working with a wide variety of people is that every experience is so different, even if they share the same starting point. Having a baby in the NICU is a different type of trauma that shifts what you understand to be normal. It shifts everything you know to be normal and everything you expect to encounter in the way you enter parenthood. The good news is that you CAN find yourself again and return to “normal”! Let’s talk abou

September is NICU Awareness Month. If you aren’t familiar with what NICU stands for, it’s where sick or pre-term babies go for specialized care until they are well enough to (hopefully) go home. One of the most common questions I get from parents is about facing another pregnancy after going through a NICU experience. Just the thought of a repeat situation is terrifying for a parent. Today’s show dives into four important steps to take before trying to conceive again after a

Fertility trauma is happening all around us. It’s a huge part of the journey when you’re trying to conceive. Today’s show discusses why we have to address this issue and why trauma resolution should be part of fertility treatment for everyone. Listen on iTunes | Listen on Stitcher | Listen on iHeartRadio Episode highlights... What is fertility trauma? Why trauma is NOT always based on a single event Examples of when and how fertility trauma may occur Why fertility t

Let's start with this truth: we tend to overpathologize grief. Our culture, our community and health professionals, we all do it. We want it to get better, we want to be "over it" and we want it to stop hurting. But the truth is, grief hurts. It sucks. It feels awful. That's how it is designed to be. The pain of grief is not the problem. When grief becomes stuck Grief is meant to be like a flowing ocean, waves crashing over us that become smaller and less intense with each on

A while back, an OBGYN reached out to me to ask about resources to cope with miscarriage anxiety during pregnancy. With miscarriage rates as high as 1 in 4, so many women are afraid of experiencing that life-altering heartbreak again. It reminded me a woman I worked with a while back while on hospital bed rest. Her nurse had advised her to stop working with her therapist after noticing preterm contractions spiked every time she had a session. This woman contacted me inst

Experiencing a loss is heartshattering for any parent. Whether it's a chemical pregnancy, miscarriage, due to prematurity, a stillbirth or any other reason, it is the hardest thing for a parent to survive. Getting pregnant again after a loss can bring up concerns about the health of the baby, fears of another loss and a tremendous distrust of your body. On this episode, Christine shares her personal experiences of pregnancy after loss, how she coped and how she turned her tra

The words and labels that you use during your family-building challenges matter. They inform what important anchor points define your story and they validate your experiences. The more you use them, the more others will follow. On this episode, I share with you why we should stop hiding from the terminology that makes us feel seen and heard so we can create a community of support around us as we go through the challenges and then heal after they're all over. Listen on iTunes

On today’s Q/A show, I am so excited to have your questions answered by one of my favorite infertility specialists, Dr. Aimee Eyvazzadeh.

When it comes to making decisions about your life, family, and children, the only sure thing is to follow your gut and trust your instincts. Many times the path you envision looks nothing like the journey that reality will bring. No one else--not even your doctor--can decide what’s right for you. Today’s show is my personal story of finding and holding to that very last ray of hope, even when I thought all hope was gone. Listen on iTunes | Listen on Stitcher | Liste

Experiencing a loss is heart shattering for any parent. Whether it's a chemical pregnancy, miscarriage, due to prematurity, a stillbirth or any other reason, it is the hardest thing for a parent to survive. Getting pregnant again after a loss can bring up concerns about the health of the baby, fears of another loss and a tremendous distrust of your body. On this episode, Christine shares her personal experiences of pregnancy after loss, how she coped and how she turned her tr

When you have challenges creating the family of your dreams, whether it's experiencing loss or infertility, a high-risk pregnancy or prematurity, it wreaks havoc on all aspects of your life. You feel alone and can have a million questions swirling in your mind that you don't know where to find the answers to. On this episode, I answer 4 of my listeners' questions as they navigate their journey to building the family of their dreams. Listen on iTunes | Listen on Stitch

Loss is devastating. It's something no parent should ever have to experience. Recurrent loss is even more heartbreaking, especially when you don't have any idea why it keeps happening and what you can do about it. On this episode, I chat with specialist, Dr. Lora Shahine about what couples need to know about recurrent pregnancy loss and what you can do about it to optimize your reproductive and pregnancy health. Listen on iTunes | Listen on Stitcher | Listen on iHeart

Losing a baby during pregnancy, no matter how early or far along you are, is completely devastating and something no parent should ever have to experience. The heartbreak, the devastation and the trauma is enough to shake a person to their core. Though, one in four women experience a miscarriage or one in one hundred women experience an ectopic pregnancy, there is little comfort in those statistics when you're going through it. You feel completely alone and as if you're the o

On this episode of Delivering Miracles, High-risk pregnancy expert, clinically trained therapist and former high-risk mother, Parijat Deshpande talks with nutritional therapy practitioner and fertility expert Lindsay Dam about the less thought about causes of miscarriages. They discuss nutrition and digestion and how important these are in avoiding a miscarriage. Listen on iTunes | Listen on Stitcher | Listen on iHeartRadio Resources from the show... Get your copy

Today I want to share with you the story of "Cassandra", a woman I worked with a little while back. (To protect my true client's identity I've changed her name and identifying details about her in the story below.) Cassandra was a 32 year old woman when she got her first positive pregnancy test. She had been told that after 30 it may take her a few times to get pregnant but after her first try, she saw the words clearly on her digital test: PREGNANT. She was elated, as was he

Last week I was scrolling to social media and I squealed when I saw the headline pop up, “Jamie Otis and Doug Hehner Announce Pregnancy Six Months After Losing Their Son”. Last year, Jamie and Doug lost their son Johnny when he was born at 17 weeks and 1 day, too soon for this world. They were very open about their loss, even sharing a photo of the two of them with Johnny on the day he was born. I had tears in my eyes when I read that she found out she was pregnant with this