How to grieve the loss of a dream, the loss of what once was, but was suddenly halted
Pregnancy Loss Counseling and Infertility Counseling in Huntsville, AL. Support for pregnancy loss and infertility. Contact a pregnancy loss counselor for a free consultation..
You don’t have to grieve the loss of your little one alone.
Pregnancy loss can feel uniquely isolating. It’s the loss that nobody talks about, but so many of us experience.
You dread every text, knowing it might be another pregnancy announcement.
Everyone around you is happily growing their family. Meanwhile, your arms are empty and your life is on pause.
Your feed is flooded with perfect family photos with friends and their babies at Christmas, birthdays, and daily life. Your own posts show you and your husband smiling, but don’t tell the true story of the aching dashed hope that comes with each negative pregnancy test, with each period.
Your best friends, your bridesmaids, and your siblings all have babies, while you fumble to prepare to grieve yearly missed due dates, miscarriage anniversary dates, and reminders of your loss.
You plaster a smile on your face as you show up to baby showers and gender reveals with gifts you should be opening. And you silently wonder “Why do they keep inviting me, as if they don’t know how much it hurts?”
You drag yourself into work each day, with the painful reminder that you were “supposed” to be a stay-at-home mom.
You can’t bear to see your friends anymore, knowing they’re happily busy with their children. Just the sight of them is triggering.
Your relationship with your spouse used to be adventurous and enlivening, but lately it’s centered around hopeful but sober fertility doctor’s visits and negative pregnancy tests.
Your thoughts play tug-of-war between being afraid to hope, versus painting constant pictures of what life could look like. You tell yourself, “If I got pregnant this month, we’d have a baby by Christmas.” Or “Today would’ve been my due date, but instead we’re back to square one, trying to conceive.”
Sometimes your thoughts are more bleak: “The baby I lost would have been the same age as my friend’s daughter. There she is in her Kindergarten graduation photo.”
Or “I couldn’t even make my mom a grandmother.”
Or “I can’t show up to another Christmas where we watch all my nieces and nephews open our gifts and I bite back tears.”
“We were pregnant together. We were supposed to raise our kids together, enjoying playdates and cute photos together.. Now her life keeps moving on and I’m stuck behind, with nothing to show for it.”
Helping you navigate unthinkable loss
Hi, I’m Kelli.
Working with me looks like learning to name your losses and grieve each one. Maybe you lost the title of “mommy” along with the title of “stay-at-home mom.” Maybe you lost the Christmas where everything was finally supposed to get better. Together, we’ll learn to list the losses and grieve them individually.
I’ll help you verbalize (or write an unsent letter) to family and friends what you need during this time of grief. Once you learn what you’re feeling and what your needs are, we can work on getting those needs met.
Together, we’ll reconnect you with the you that’s still inside.
We’ll learn what to do for special holidays and pregnancy loss anniversaries.
We’ll learn how to identify triggers, and how to soothe yourself through big emotions with regulation exercises.
With somatic grief counseling, you’ll get curious about what you’re feeling on the inside. Full healing includes the body, the heart, and the mind. With me, you’ll learn to care for yourself in ways you missed out on in the past. You’ll learn to notice when you’re approaching the edge of what you can handle, and how to get to safety and use your tools to regulate.
You don’t have to suffer in silence.
Therapy for pregnancy loss can help you…
Prioritize your self-care
Identify your emotions and needs
Improve your relationships with others via boundaries and open communication
Reconnect to your sense of self
Trust your gut to tell you when it’s “too much”
Frequently Asked Questions
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With bereavement counseling, you’ll learn coping skills, regulation techniques, how to check in with yourself, and how to ask for what you need. You’ll also learn to identify triggers and have a plan for them so you don’t feel like you’re walking through a minefield all the time.
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Not at all! We’ll respect the nervous system’s limits and go at your own pace. Meanwhile, grief has a way of bringing out other, older wounds that can actually get in the way of grieving. So we’ll talk about other areas of your life, too.
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Grief takes as long as it takes. While there’s no set timeline for healing, the memories will change and not be so painful. Grief counseling helps you navigate that process in a soothing, helpful way.