Female Voices: Life and Loss

Liane Moccia shares her infertility journey which included being given the diagnosis of unexplained infertility . She said I just assumed when we decided to start a family it would happen. Nope three failed IUI attempts and then on to IVF. She did the whole protocol to hear, based on the imagines and your numbers we are cancelling the retrieval, the cycle is over. She said I didn't know that w...

Allison and her husband Chris were given that frustrating diagnosis of unexplained infertility . They went through many tests, tried clomid, had a HSG and tried IUI with no success. She said fertility or infertility is on a month by month schedule, if you miss the window you have to wait another month.  She said I needed to take a break for my mental state. I was beating myself up and had a really...

Erica McAfee is the Founder and CEO of Sisters in Loss , a maternal child health company that helps Black women replace silence with storytelling around pregnancy and infant loss and infertility.  Sisters in Loss provides pregnancy, birth, postpartum, bereavement doula, and grief services to help women step beyond anxiety and fear and into trust and peace after loss.  It's self-titled podcast...

Sarah has been intentional about creating ways to honor, celebrate and remember her stillborn daughter Ellie. She feels blessed that she can honor Ellie so openly and feel like it is not, this awkward thing. She said we decided that we would not always be sad when we mentioned her name. Sarah talked about what she and her husband do every year on the anniversary of losing their daughter and what t...

La-Anna is an amazing woman that has experienced a tremendous amount of pain with horrible periods starting at age 10. She was misdiagnosed for many years until finally being told that she had two uterus and two cervix, which is called didelphys uterus .  And in addition to these diagnoses, she also had endometriosis and fibroids. She talked about the very deep depression she experienced after yea...

Brittney Crunk shared a tremendous amount of great information about her journey to help families have a baby to love by being their surrogate. She is very passionate about creating awareness around surrogacy . She said do not let Hollywood or other stories discourage you from considering using a surrogate to carry your child but do your research and to not push through things to quickly because y...

The learnings I have received over the last year of hosting and recording Labor Pains podcast have been 1 of the most rewarding and memorable years of my life. It is just so hard to put into words all the feelings and emotions that have been pouring through my body as I have been reflecting and thinking about this past year. All I can say is thank you all for supporting me on this journey to be wi...

Candace Kluba said before my loss I looked on the bright side of things and after, I had a hard time feeling or being positive. Now I am very passionate about helping others heal by using mindfulness. She said several years ago I felt I was healed in the sense that I was not angry all the time. I did not have the depleting emotions all the time. I attended a class during a conference which sparked...

Tameika Thomas lost her twin daughters at 26 weeks and blamed herself for several years. She just keeps herself going at a very fast pace with work and school. She is a woman that puts high expectations on herself, and she said I am the one who expects perfection of myself, and I know that is impossible. When the world was shut down due to the pandemic it forced her to take time to slow down and t...

Kim Hooper, Meredith Resnick and Dr. Huong Diep are co-authors of All The Love, Healing Your Heart and Finding Meaning After Pregnancy Loss. They are authors of other previously published books and after Kim's multiple losses she decided to write a book to share her personal story but wanted it to have a therapeutic component. The authors shared their vision behind the book. Kim felt that her...

May is National Foster Care Month and Stacy Williams is a Foster Care mom that spoke about some myths of Foster Care and about the option of fostering to have the family you desire. She experienced pregnancy loss and you can hear her entire story and more about why she chose foster care in Episode 27. She has been a Foster Care Mom for 14 years. Stacy talked about her purpose is to be a foster par...

Kim Hooper had a very unique journey to become a mom of 1 daughter here on earth. She had 4 pregnancies that ended in loss before having a pregnancy with no complications. She talks about the shocking news with the first pregnancy. I was going to have a baby but wait now my life is in danger and I have lost the baby. With another loss she remembers again the medical shock of having to wait for her...

Melissa Sulley has 2 living children on earth, 1 on the way and 7 babies in the stars that did not make it earth side.  Due to all her losses Melissa is a pregnancy and infant loss doula, as well as a grief coach and educator. She said she loves talking about loss and normalizing pregnancy loss because there is a lot of shame around it. Her first loss rocked her world. She said I was so naïve to h...

This episode was recording to increase the awareness of infertility. Infertility effects 1 in 8 couples in the United States , which translates to 7.5 million people. I personally have experience how hard it is when 2 of my 3 daughters had infertility struggles. If you are struggling with infertility, I have referenced in this episode, several previous episodes where women and men have shared thei...

Sarah Clark wanted to be married at 25 and kids by 28. When she went off the pill, which was falsely regulating her periods, they again became irregular and heavy. When visiting the doctor, she was told she had premature ovarian failure and the only way to have kids was to use donor eggs. She was given a brochure about IVF and sent to the clinic. Sarah talked about being naïve and did not go for a...

Kelsey shares her story about not wanted to have children when her and her husband married but they were bitten by the baby bug. After several months of trying her sister-in-law announced she was pregnant with their 2nd. I was happy for them, but I thought why does she get 2 and I do not get any? Then the feelings of guilt came, I did want to be happy for them. After a year of trying Kelsey became...

Andy Karam and his wife experience a tremendous loss of their 2-year-old daughter Fee-Fee due to an accident and then while still grieving were surprised with another pregnancy only to loss that child also. Andy talked about how traumatizing it was to see baby Willow delivered at 14 weeks. She was so tiny, and it is something you cannot prepare for. He said he still sees those images when he think...

Kristin had a very long journey down the infertility and loss road . Clomid, Letrozole, IUI, change of doctor, a multitude of test, IVF, and losses all along the way. When she got to IVF she said I'm scared about injecting all this into my body. What is it going to do to me? Is it going to work? Is it going to work for me? The unknown made me super emotional about injecting all those hormones...

Ann said I wanted a baby , and my body did not agree with that. She did a lot of research and one of the things she learned was how amazingly difficult it was to conceive. There are so many hormones involved and all those hormones must happen in a certain order for a certain amount of time and maybe, just maybe you conceive. She wondered what was wrong with her body and why could not it perform th...

Shannon started bleeding at 16 weeks pregnant and was told that she was probably having a miscarriage. She did not miscarry but was put on bedrest and continued to bleed for 10 more weeks . At 26 weeks her water broke, and pre-term labor started. When her sweet little baby boy was 3 days old, they were told that his organs were not developing and were given the option to keep him on the machines,...

Barb and Jim spent 5 years on the infertility path and the journey was up and down for both of them. It was a very emotional time with questions like, Why us? Why not us? Why can't this happen for us? Barb said I knew God had a plan for us, but I did not get there immediately but I keep trusting. A door opened for them to adopt an infant little boy which was the start of their beautiful family...

The Journey from a vasectomy to IVF to being foster parents to embryo adoption to the family God had planned for us. Desiree and her family were all heart broken when a foster child was reunited with a birth family member, which they knew was the best for the child. They then decided to adopt a child and as they were talking to the adoption agency it was suggested that they consider an embryo adop...

Rachal said , we were healthy and ready to start our family . We had good jobs, a house, savings accounts, and we had even checked out daycares, but it was not happening. I was not sharing our struggles because I am a very private person but I had started to do some research and then decided to talk to a friend. People are placed in our life for a reason, she was the right person to get us connect...

All the plans I had for my son ended at a 35-week routine doctor’s appointment when we were told there was no heartbeat . Those were the hardest words I had ever heard. All the hopes and dreams of a son were gone. It was tuff to see my wife going through so much pain during labor knowing she was going to deliver our stillborn baby boy. It was damn hard. I was thankful to the staff that helped us t...

I wanted to share the joy in my heart today for all the guest I have had over the last six months. They have all been amazing in sharing so much information to help others that are struggling with infertility or have had a loss. Even with all the heartache, pain, disappointment, and grief that they have all endured they continue daily to share their stories and the knowledge they have learned thro...