🌀 About this zone
Honoring grief in birth
Grief around birth is as ubiquitous as it is silent and every birth experience involves grief in ways that aren’t visible. This area holds space for the many forms and kinds of grief that can emerge from the journey of birth. This includes death, in the forms of miscarriages, infant loss, and maternal mortality. This includes trauma, in the forms of experiencing obstetric violence, medical mistreatment, and discrimination. This includes guilt, and growing pains of transformation.
We invite you to allow your own grief to be honored, to honor the grief of others, and to reflect upon the unspoken emotional toll of birthing and birth work we all carry. Share your own thoughts, and make a sachet to take with you.
This altar to grief was co-created with community doula Ahshayla
đź“·Â Photo captions
Images clockwise from top left:
- Ahshayla shares a certificate of still birth
- This suitcase is filled with photos contributed by Ahshayla
- Sadé shows the many hospitalization bands from their first year of life with their new child and a series of birthing complications
- Photo contributed by Ahshayla
- Ahshayla and her partner show tattoos with the date of their deceased child
- A tool given to Marise to help process their miscarriage
🕯️ Resources for support
Grief after loss can feel heavy, lonely, and invisible. You are not alone. These resources offer care, connection, and community for those navigating miscarriage, stillbirth, infant loss, or reproductive grief.
Life After 2 Losses
https://www.lifeafter2losses.org/
Support, education, and advocacy for families who have experienced stillbirth, miscarriage, or infant loss.
Postpartum Support International – Loss and Grief Resources
https://www.postpartum.net/get-help/loss-grief-infertility/
Comprehensive support for those facing grief, infertility, miscarriage, stillbirth, and infant loss.
Sisters in Loss
A community and podcast centering Black women experiencing pregnancy loss, infertility, and maternal health complications.
Share New Jersey
https://www.sharenewjersey.org/
A nonprofit offering support groups, memorial services, and resources for families who have experienced miscarriage, stillbirth, or neonatal loss in New Jersey.
The Tears Foundation – New Jersey Chapter
https://thetearsfoundation.org/newjersey/
Provides financial assistance for funeral costs and offers peer-based grief support groups for families who lose a baby during pregnancy or infancy.
Center for Pregnancy Loss at Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center
https://www.rwjbh.org/cooperman-barnabas-medical-center/treatment-care/pregnancy-loss-support/
Offers emotional support, counseling, and education for individuals and families coping with miscarriage, stillbirth, or neonatal death.
National Alliance for Children’s Grief
Offers resources, education, and support programs for children and families navigating grief, helping communities better support young people after loss.
GriefShare
A network of faith-based grief recovery support groups across the U.S., including many locations in New Jersey, offering seminars and counseling to help individuals heal after loss.
Hospice of New Jersey
https://www.hospiceofnewjersey.com/
Provides compassionate bereavement counseling, grief support groups, and ongoing emotional care for families who have experienced the loss of a loved one through hospice services.