Female Voices: Life and Loss

Jackie Duty shared that it was not her ambition to be a mother . She wanted a career and the glory of fame, one of the rich and famous. When she unexpectedly found out she was pregnant she shared that she wanted to have an abortion and her mom insisted that she not kill her grandchild. Shortly after the news of an unwanted pregnancy she had a miscarriage and was then told she was carrying twins. T...

Dr. Lindsey Langendorf is a chiropractor in the St. Louis area that specializes in Holistic fertility, prenatal, perinatal and postpartum care and pediatrics. Her journey to this specialty was definitely a crazy ride, and she has learned that God’s plan isn’t always a straight and easy path. However, she loves what she is doing and knows it’s what she was destined to do. In her practice she focuse...

Beth Frattura is founder of The Stork Foundation and it was founded due to her infertility journey . It is an organization that gives hope and opportunity to those suffering from infertility and fighting for their dream of parenthood. They provide financial assistance to low resource individuals who require costly medical infertility treatments that would otherwise be out of financial reach. Infer...

Theresa Lear Levine struggles as a successful mompreneur with trauma, ADHD and high functioning anxiety escalated into chaos, stuckness and self doubt and led her on a journey to regain inner peace, confidence and self love. She learned effective ways to get unstuck and release pain, self sabotage and unwanted feelings with processes that cultivated desired emotions and created a totally different...

On this episode I shared some of the things I have learned from my guest over the past 99 episodes. There have been so many things that were not expected when I started this podcast over 2 years ago. I am so honored and humbled to be able to allow so many to share their journey, to feel the healing from sharing their story to help others. I answer questions from Family, Friends and Past Podcast Gu...

Lauren Turley said her, and her husband felt compelled to do something shortly after Catherine's life limiting diagnosis. She said when you are a bereaved parent you don't want anyone to forget your baby. We wanted people to know about her and for her life to mean something. Catherine Cares is where we channeled our grief. Catherine Cares provides heartbeat bears, restaurant, fuel and grocery gift...

In this episode Lauren Turley shares her story about her daughter Catherine who is in heaven . At times she became very emotional remembering the hardest parts of their journey which started at the 20 week anatomy ultrasound. At that appointment she remembered it took a long time and then the sonographer said "The doctor is going to come in and we are going to take care of you. The doctor shared w...

Anita Doermann said it was like a stab to the heart when people asked if I had children. She shared about never having any biological children and suffering in silence while others shared about their pregnancies, deliveries and raising their children. For a long time she felt emptiness and disappointment in herself. She said due to her infertility and other life experiences she did a lot of self d...

I am so very excited to have achieved the milestone of 2 years.  Being the host of Labor Pains Podcast has been both a humbling and educational experience this past year. As I reflect back, WOW I have met so many amazingly strong women and men over this past year that I will be in awe of for the rest of my life. As I talked about in this episode I have learned so much from all of my guest and thos...

This episode is a re-release of episode 53 . In this episode Allison Hursey shared the journey that she and her husband Chris have been navigating through to find peace with their unexplained infertility. She said I was beating myself up and had a really hard time dealing with the frustration and anger. Thankfully my husband loved me through it. They definitely had a large amount of stress that th...

Chandria Taylor's therapist encouraged her to start journaling after she lost her daughter, Adelyn Rose . She loved to write and said I didn't know I had so much to say until I put a pen to paper. There was more  of me than I thought. She turned her journaling into her first book, Like a Rose: The Thorns. Every Chapter in this book also includes the story of an angel mom that had connected...

Charie Motley is a mother, licensed clinical psychologist, and certified perinatal mental health professional who has experienced pregnancy loss, and challenges during pregnancies. She went in for a routine ultrasound to find there was a problem. They determined later she had a missed miscarriage and her body never miscarried the baby. She remembers people trying to be supportive by saying, at lea...

Cheryl Layton lost her son 31 years ago just days after his birth. She talks about all the What If's? Should I have done more? Did I do something wrong? Like many parents Cheryl said when I look back I blamed myself and I felt like everyone blamed me. Cheryl said for many years she was very scared and paranoid that something else would happen to her daughters or her grandchildren. She continue...

Traumatic Bereavemen t is suffered with infertility, pregnancy, infant loss and child loss. Parents are not supposed to bury their children. One of the most difficult things about being a mother of a baby in heaven is that others either don't remember or they do not allow mothers to talk about the baby they still love so deeply.  Women mother their babies in their womb and love them so deeply...

Chandria Taylor is a teacher, an author, singer and dancer. She is the mother of four beautiful girls named Rylen, Jacelyn, Adelyn and Eden. Her daughter Adelyn Rose was born sleeping on November 1, 2018. Chandria now is the founder of Like A Rose, a nonprofit in Illinois that raises awareness and provides support and services to families who have experienced child loss. Chandria shared her story...

As we approach Mother's Day Candace Kluba and Ann-Maire Ferry joined me to share some great insight to help you navigate the upcoming holiday. Ways to celebrate and honor you as a Mother. Take time to turn inward and find what is best for you, find love and acceptance for yourself. Don't feel like you need to attend church services or brunch. Others will be there, celebrating with their ch...

Tony Mazzaferro is a soon to be OB/GYN and part of the leadership of a non-profit called The Stork Foundation. With all of his education in medicine he never crossed his mind that he and his wife would have trouble conceiving. They did all the things to become pregnant on their own with no luck. Then a couple different medications which was 3 months each with no luck. Lab work resulted in no answe...

Roxy Jenkins is one of the strongest women I have met on the infertility journey. Due to her journey that has been over 10 years, she has a wealth of knowledge that she is so willing to share to help others. The number of treatments, cycles, diagnosis, tests and surgeries is mind-blowing to me and I'm sure it will be to you as well. Most recently she had an ectopic pregnancy which resulted in...

Morgan Newby shared seeing a negative pregnancy test for many months until one night she dreamt she was pregnant. She remembers seeing the positive pregnancy test the next morning for the very first time. The following day she and her husband spent the entire day talking about where to put the nursery, baby names and everything baby all day. Morgan went to bed and woke up to horrible pain which me...

Nick and Sabrina Kohlberg were told at their 20-week anatomy scan that their daughter Collins had anencephaly. This condition is not compatible with life. They were given a couple weeks to decide whether to terminate the pregnancy or continue with the expectation that she could pass at any time. They were told if she made it to delivery, she could live a few minutes or a few hours. Sabrina said, &...

Shannon Curry with ConceiveAbilities shared with me the processes and procedures for those very special women that are considering becoming a surrogate. This was a very informative episode for those women that are natural givers and want to give back in a big way. Shannon shared that she needed to use a surrogate for her second child due to a health issue. This is what brought her to begin working...

Shannon Curry shares with us her journey to grow her family after being diagnosed with a rare eye condition during her first pregnancy. She remembers feeling very scared for her own health while feeling she should be thinking about the health of her unborn son. She was told by 3 doctors she would lose the vision in her eye by the time the baby was born. She was so thankful she found a 4th doctor t...

Grief Coach Teresa shared on this episode receiving devastating news, why she continues to listen, comfort and now coach those that are receiving this news. In addition, she talks about a few of the questions she is asked most frequently from podcast guests and clients. Teresa continues this podcast to first and foremost to help, love and care for those around her. This was modeled to her by very...

Amanda Tooley is very passionate about sharing her own story of PCOS that she describes as hell. During her teen pregnancy she went to the hospital for bleeding and pain. She was told she had an involuntary abortion which was very upsetting to her. She said I did not have an abortion. This is when her PCOS was diagnosed. Amanda shared about her 7 years of nonstop biopsies due to precancerous cells...

Rebecca Rudolph knew she would have infertility struggles even before she was married due to irregular periods and a PCOS diagnosis. With also having type 1 diabetes, when her and her husband decided to have children a treatment plan was put together with her doctor. She said infertility shows no mercy and it doesn't move by your timeline or plan. They did several rounds of IUI that didn't...