I'm establishing this blog in order to connect with other bereaved parents who contributed to A Gift of Time: Continuing Your Pregnancy When Your Baby's Life is Expected to Be Brief, by Amy Kuebelbeck and Deborah Davis. Amy's book Waiting with Gabriel was instrumental, personally, as my husband and I prepared to briefly hold our infant daughter, whom we knew wouldn't survive more than an hour or two after birth.
Amy Kuebelbeck's shared personal perspectives, and bittersweet celebrations of Gabriel's short life inspired my husband and I to develop a focused plan for our very brief time with our daughter, Gianna Marie. Essentially, we learned through those shared perspectives that despite the tremendous sadness, heartache and disbelief that our child wouldn't live, we could actually hope for some consolation and even peace. Even experience a glimmer of hope for beauty in our time with our dying baby. I couldn't stop reading the book once I started. I suddenly realized that I wasn't alone in this experience. I read the book from cover to cover in a few hours, and went through several boxes of tissue as I lay in bed and felt my unborn child moving inside my womb.
The next day I insisted that my husband read the book. And he did, immediately. And then we requested that our parents read the book, as we believed it would help them prepare for Gianna's birth and better understand how we wanted to navigate our preparation for our baby's birth.
When we learned of the opportunity to share our insights with other parents through contributing to A Gift of Time, we both wanted to do so--in order to reach out and hopefully assist others who decide to continue pregnancies, despite knowing their child will soon die. It's our hope that many parents who in the future receive devastating news will find this resource to be a source of strength and hope during a most trying life experience.
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