Cocoon

In the days after Gina gave birth to her stillborn son , James, she wrote a record of the event on her blog. It was a beginning of her mourning and rebuilding process and captures both the grief she was feeling at the time and the hope that she had that her life would be made better by James and her relationship with him—as brief as it was. (more…)

The full human experience includes this: pregnancy, birth, life, death. And if all goes well and normally, the pregnancy is 9 months, the birth takes a day or so, the life is decades long, and the death neither sneaks up nor hovers for too long. But the normal order is sometimes confused. The pregnancy is too short. The birthing process is unusually long. The death casts a shadow for months and ev...

“Winter Fear” by Kay Ryan Is it just Winter or is this worse. Is this the year when outer damp obscures a deeper curse that spring can’t fix, when gears that turn the earth won’t shift the view when clouds won’t lift though all the skies go blue. There is an expectation with pregnancy that growing a life leads to glowing. The question, “How are you feeling?” is supposed to...

Among her 5 children, Alanna Smith has had just about every type of childbirth experience you can have, and each one has left an impression and shaped her perspective. In episode 10 she shares the ups and downs of childbirth—and how, by the time she had her 4th baby, she found what she was looking for in a healthy birth. And it may not be what you expect. Her story includes frantic phone calls and...

In episode 8 , Misty told us about how when she was 18, she was diagnosed with an auto-immune disease that made it a really bad idea for her to have biological children, and about the first few disappointments she and her husband went through as they pursued growing their family through adoption. In this episode Misty shares each of her children’s adoption stories—from the strength she witne...

When she was 18 years old Misty Brough went from being a vibrant college freshman to being told that she was on the verge of death within a few hours. A year or so and many scans, surgeries, and treatments later, she was back at school, defying expectations and getting her life back on track. Then her doctor told her, “I don’t want you to bear children.” The risks and uncertainti...

You’re 17—young, in love, full of life and hope and possibility. And then you discover that you actually are growing a life, and it seems as though that love and hope and possibility fade away—or suddenly disappear. Gloria shares her experience finding her way through the betrayal, the heartbreak, and the early years of (very) young motherhood. And she talks about how she never wanted to mak...

It’s often the first thing we do for our babies when they emerge from our bodies: put them to our breasts and hope they know what to do. Sometimes it is that easy. And sometimes it’s not. Feeding your child is the most basic and fundamental way of caring for your baby. It speaks to issues like nutrition, bonding, and infant development—so it’s no wonder people get touchy, and pus...

Two years ago, Suvi had a baby. He was her first and he was (and is) a beautiful, healthy boy, born from a healthy—but haunted—pregnancy. Many women experience fear during pregnancy: fear of pain, fear that something is wrong with the baby, even fear of death—their own or the baby’s. But not many women have actual first-hand experience with the realities of aternal mortality. Suvi does. And...

Lots of us turn to writing when life gets tough. It’s a proven form of therapy and it let’s us understand and experience our emotions so that we can untangle them and—sometimes—make something beautiful with them. As Jodie was pregnant with Anna, and realizing that she was not going to be able to raise her, she wrote about her experience, her thoughts and her fears—and her love for Anna...

You’re 20 weeks pregnant and it looks like something is wrong with the baby. How do you spend the rest of the pregnancy? Jodie and Adrian tell us how they handled a worst case scenario and came out of it feeling strengthened, loved, and grateful.

There is always hope that out of every difficult, painful experience, there is something good to be gained. Lizzie tells about her own losses and struggles and her hope that Cocoon Stories will help her—and others—find a silver lining. Listen in iTunes here .

Annie and Ben Howington share their experience of helping their daughter fight childhood cancer—and what it did to their family. We all have unexpected situations that come up in our lives—things that could change our plans and our goals forever. Maybe they do, and maybe they don’t, but we can choose how we respond and how much we let our circumstances shape our lives and our future. That&#8...

Our first episode features Mary Jane Callister telling us how she’s handled two things that are both so common and yet so personal to so many women: the challenge of getting pregnant and starting a family, and the challenge of balancing your various passions once you become a mom. The struggle is real. We’d love to hear how you working to find balance in your own life—how you balance m...