I know that most of you are thinking of ghosts and witches today, but I am thinking mostly of Genevieve. October is pregnancy and infant loss awareness month, though it’s lost in the shadow of breast cancer awareness. Those boobies get all of the love.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel recently ran this piece by Laura Schubert on infant loss, and I wanted to share it. I will say that this article captures the despair of baby loss. And though I have hours of despair, most of my days are happy. I am grateful that Greg and I get to watch Eleanor dress up as a ballerina tonight. I am grateful that we get to watch her bounce from house to house with her little red Elmo bucket. But Genevieve will not be snuggled in my arms, as she should be, for this holiday or any other. And nothing can make up for that.
Infant loss is nature’s cruelest practical joke. It’s investing all of the required time and effort into pregnancy, only to be robbed of the result. It’s cradling a body that grew within your own and trying to reconcile the cold, lifeless form in your arms with your memory of the baby who turned double flips in your womb.
It’s worrying that you’ll forget what your child looked like and snapping an album’s worth of photos that no one will ever ask to see. It’s sobbing so hard you can’t breathe and wondering if it’s possible to cry yourself to death.
Infant loss is handing off a Moses basket to the nurse who’s drawn the unfortunate duty of delivering your pride and joy to the morgue and walking out of a hospital with empty arms.
It’s boxing up brand new baby clothes and buying a 24-inch casket. It’s sifting through sympathy cards, willing your foolish body to stop lactating, clutching your baby’s blanket to your chest in hopes of soothing the piercing ache in your heart.
It’s resisting the urge to smack the clueless individuals who compare your situation to the death of their dog or who tell you you’ll have another baby, as if children are somehow replaceable.
Infant loss is explaining to your 7-year-old that sometimes babies die and being stumped into silence when she asks you why. It’s watching other families live out your happy ending and fighting a fresh round of grief with every milestone you miss.
It’s being shut out of play groups for perpetuity. It’s skipping social events with expectant and newly minted mothers because, as a walking worst-case scenario, you don’t want to put a damper on the party.
It’s listening to other women gripe about motherhood and realizing that you no longer relate to their petty parental complaints because, frankly, when you’ve buried a baby, a sleepless night with a vomiting toddler sounds something like a gift.
Infant loss is pruning from your life the friends and relatives who ignore or minimize your loss. It’s recognizing that, while they may not mean to be hurtful, the fact that they don’t know any better doesn’t make their utter lack of empathy one whit easier to bear.
My baby girl would have been 5 years old this month. I don’t know what she’d look like, what her favorite food would be. I’ve never had the privilege of tucking her into bed, taking her to the zoo or kissing her boo-boos. I will never watch her graduate or walk down the aisle.
Infant loss is more than an empty cradle. It’s a life sentence.
