Hello-
Welcome to my blog- Soundwaves. I am a housewife, mother and former elementary school teacher. I started this blog because I would like to reach out to people who have experienced the loss of a baby through miscarriage, stillbirth or death right after birth. I suffered two miscarriages and gave birth to stillborn twin sons due to twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome. I now happily have two live sons ages 8 and 6.
I have been RTS trained as a bereavement support person. I volunteer for the Hygeia Foundation on its Parent Board and facilitate Hygeia support meetings for grieving parents. Although I am not a professional counselor, I hope my posts will help women and families who have suffered the loss of a baby find solice and perhaps a sense of hope for the future.
Take Care-
Claudia
Soundwaves Perinatal Bereavement Support 
Hello Claudia
I am in the process of planning a retreat for women who have suffered miscarriages. Mine was about 7 years ago and it is still fresh. I was hoping I could speak with you to get some of your thouights on what I could do to best help the women who attend.
I hope to hear from you and thank you.
Teresa
Hi Teresa
Sorry it took me so long to get back to you on this, and I’m also so sorry to hear of your miscarriage. Love never dies- perhaps that’s why we feel pain for our children long after they are gone.
I hope the following information is helpful to you for your retreat:
As you know, women often feel very alone after a miscarriage. We are taught not to speak about our early pregnancies for fear that a miscarriage will happen. Just being able to talk with people who have gone through the same experience in a safe, caring environment can bring great relief to bereaved parents. Give participants time to share, and to validate each other’s grief. Also, journaling on a specific topic and sharing those written thoughts together can be very cathartic.
You might want to also include some “hands-on” activities for those who attend. Here are just a few ideas for participants to create something tangible to remember their babies:
– make a piece of jewelry
– have participants create a scrapbook page (or many)
– paint a candle holder (see below) and ask participants to all light their candles at the some time once they get home a few days after the retreat
– decorate a clay pot for a plant or flower (see below).
Candle holder: In our support groups,we’ve decorated small glass hurricane lamp candle holders. You can buy pens in different colors that write on glass in any craft store.
Clay pot: We’ve decorated medium sized clay pots that you can find in any home improvement store or flower nursery. Again, you can find paints and/or pens that are made just for pottery in the craft stores. Plant a forget-me-not or other plant or flower that has significance.
This website on miscarriage has a lot of great information: http://theamethystnetwork.org/articles/ The informative articles are all written by bereaved parents and the section entitled “Topics” is particularly good. Perhaps you can find some other ideas for your retreat there.
I hope this helps and good luck!
Claudia
Claudia — I am a reporter at the Orlando Sentinel in Florida and am hoping to reach you as soon as possible for a story I’m writing on this subject. Please email me at [email protected]. Thank you — Kate Santich
Hi Claudia,
My name is Rose Carlson, and I work for an organization called Share Pregnancy and Infant Loss Support, Inc. Part of my job is seeking articles for our bi-monthly newsletter and our blog. I am wondering if you would be interested in allowing me to print a blog post of yours titled “Waves of Grief” in our upcoming issue on dealing with the holidays? Here is a link to our online newlsetter if you would like to check it out before giving me your answer.
http://www.nationalshare.org/newsletter.html
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Warmly,
Rose Carlson
Hi Claudia, My name is Kathy Fowler and I am a nurse and facilitator for a Perinatal Loss Support Group for our hospital. I mail out a monthly newsletter to our parents and I am always looking for helpful information on certain topics. I was wondering if you would allow me to use some parts of your blog on Dealing With Anger for this month’s newsletter? Thank you for posting this site! I know you are helping so many parents out there!
Hi Kathy- Yes, please feel free to use what you need! Thank you, and bless you for doing the work that you do! Claudia