If you have been given the bad news but have not yet delivered your baby, you may have some time to begin to prepare for what is to come.
Instead of rushing off to have your baby, take some breaths and think about getting some help and advice. A little time and preparation can go a long way to help you gain some control back. Baby Loss Doulas, knowledgeable companions, or even well-trained nurses can offer to help talk you through the steps ahead including the decisions and choices that will soon be asked of you. Unless you have learned from personal or professional experience, you may be clueless about how to answer the questions and make choices you are about to face. This makes sense; where would you have learned such things? Yet, it is vital that you go about this carefully.
You may wonder why it is important to make thoughtful decisions as you prepare for the birth of your baby. The labor and delivery and the hello and goodbye time, which can go by so quickly, is the time you have with this precious little one. With help, you can make these moments into mountains and special memories. These memories then are a key to your healing; they become the foundation for your future healing. You can do them poorly and suffer lifelong regrets or with help from others, you can build a solid foundation minimizing regrets and maximizing memories. Some of the steps in creating your personal Birth Preferences Plan, or a Birth Vision, can include:
Our trained and certified Baby Loss Doulas ™ are well-prepared and can be of assistance no matter where you live. They help many parents like you over the phone when it can’t be done in person. Visit the www.lossdoulas.com site and look under Locate a Loss Doula.