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Losing a Child: Always Andy's Mom


As a pediatrician, married mom of three biological children and one foster son, my life was busy, rushing off to my office four days a week, seeing patients for three and working as a medical director of a local physician organization for one. I balanced this with rushing off to shuttle my kids to after sports and other after school activities. All of this changed one day in August of 2018 when my 14 year old son, Andy, was killed in a car accident. I felt like my life was over, and in some ways it was over, and a new life was forced to begin in its place. 

Grief is seldom discussed openly in our culture, and the death of a child makes people feel even more uncomfortable. On this blog and podcast, ‘Losing a Child: Always Andy’s Mom’, the topic is approached openly and honestly, speaking to people who have lost loved ones and experts who help care for them. Whether you are a parent experiencing loss or someone who wants to support another going through this tragedy, this blog and podcast strives to offer hope and help.

Oct 22, 2020

My regular listeners know that some of my biggest pet peeves as a bereaved parent are the well-meaning platitudes given by others to try to offer comfort. Comments like, 'she is in a better place' or 'everything happens for a reason' tend to make me irritated instead. One comment that I know that many moms can hear is, 'you are young - you can have another baby' as if that is an easy way to erase the pain.

That is so much easier to say than to do, however, and another baby will NOT eliminate the pain caused by losing a previous one. Today's guest, Joey, has worked with families who have lost their children or had loss during pregnancy. She works with them on their grief journey as they go through the process of becoming pregnant again. Over the years, she has learned so much about the struggles that these women face. She felt called to write a book sharing some of these stories to help others know  they are not alone.

The book is titled, Rebirth: The Journey of Pregnancy after a Loss, and can be purchased here through Amazon. In it, she hopes to help normalize the struggles that women, their spouses, and families face when going through pregnancy again after experiencing unimaginable tragedy. Today, we talk about the book and opening up one's heart again to a new child when that heart is still broken.