SHARE Atlanta

Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Pin
Available at our events and groups.

Dear All,

If you missed last month's activities and/or meetings, you were missed. For those who did come, thank you for sharing with us. We have had a busy and exciting month or so!

April's Meeting: "Grief and Future Choices"

We had 12 members attend the April women's meeting. We discussed ideas for future pregnancy medical, emotional, and mental support. We looked at why waiting for the 4 to 6 month of grief to pass might make it "easier" to think about being pregnant and for dealing with a pregnancy at that time after a loss. We talked about the importance of second opinions even if we loved our present doctor or medical staff. We talked about how a subsequent pregnancy might be different than the one we just moved through. Everyone received a tiny butterfly with attached poem that SA parents, Amanda and John Flatt, had donated for parents. Lastly, we shared thoughts about our pregnancy with the baby that we now hold in our hearts as well as ways moms were coping, etc.

May's Meeting: "The Significance of You and Your Baby."

This month's Women's meeting is this coming Wed. May 18 at 7 pm. The topic is "The Significance of You and Your Baby." We will have a Mother's Day remembrance during this time. Moms at the April meeting explored the idea of bringing treasured mementos, poems, and pictures (sonograms and pregnancy pictures, too!) to share during this meeting. EVERY baby is special..our moms who have lost their baby through miscarriage were thinking of special ways to remember their baby, too. Please join us as we celebrate our motherhood and our precious babies.

June's Meeting: "Grief and Secondary Losses" There will NO MEN/WOMEN'S MEETING IN JUNE.

Our primary loss is our precious baby...secondary losses are feelings and concepts like the loss of: innocence, hope, communication with others, self-worth, role of parenting, and a host of others. We will share what these are, how they influence our grief pattern and ways to cope with them. Grief is "doable" as we learn how to better cope. Consider joining us - no manner where along your path of healing you are. We gather insight from those who are at different places on the path.

Directions to our Meetings

SA's MODS' Page This sum does not include 3 to 5 Family Teams that were walking for SA.

One way that many of our parents were coping was by joining us with our annual SA/MODS' "Walk to Remember". We walk to remember our special babies as we help MODS support families to have healthy babies. Every year brings new stories and learnings. MODS' research could find answers for every loss issue from early miscarriage - stillbirth to newborn death. Thank goodness for their ongoing hospital programs for preemies and their folic acid campaign to help end neural tube birth defects.

As a result of our MODS' efforts, we had an interview with a newspaper columnist who wrote up my thoughts about the Pregnancy and Newborn Loss Community's concerns and mission. Every time we are published or do something special in honor of our babies, advocacy and awareness happen. Here is a link to this article:

March for Babies Article with Marcia McGinnis

Jonathon Irvin's First Anniversary and SA/MODS: Lauren and Rin and their extended family members celebrated their son, Jonathon's first anniversary/birthday (April 30, 2010) with us at the walk on April 30. They walked in memory and honor of Jonathon. Their collective efforts made them a top walker for babies!! Then, their family treasured the rest of the day honoring Jonathon with many loving and special activities. Lauren and Rin captured their celebration of Jonathon's life in pictures. You can see their album of pictures on our new FB pages photo albums. Thank you, Lauren and Rin, for sharing with your SA family these precious memories. Thanks to Allysa Wolf for putting them into an album for our page.

SA - FB

We also are working on a brand new FB page!! SA parents, Allysa and Nathan Wolf have been instrumental in getting this new page started. More details coming..but you can check it out here:

SA's New FB Page

Father's Day

Anniversaries, Due Dates, and Holidays (Father's Menu)

Angel Garden & Memorial Brick

Now, could be a good time to start to think about the wording you might wish on a memorial brick to either keep as a keepsake and/or place in the SA Angel Garden. We can order these one time a year and that date is Aug. 15 for an October placing. For many, our Angel Garden with Memorial bricks provides a safe haven and quiet place to visit and find peace. One brick out near our angel says, "A person is a person no matter how small." Every baby is precious..

Angel Garden Video

We will have a MODS' booklet with pictures, etc. If you would like to share your thoughts, pictures, etc. send them to me and/or go to our FB and post them there! If you have several pictures that might go into an album, please let me know. The administrators of the FB page are the only ones who can make albums. We would like for different ones to do this, but that is not permitted on FB.

Thank you for "sharing." Your input could make the difference for you and/or someone else in our group.

Hope to see you Wednesday! Don't forget your keepsakes.

Take care,

Marcia

The love stays..forever in our hearts.

since 1984 A self-help and mutual support group

"Healing Happens" PDF of SHARE Atlanta Families 2011 by Marcia McGinnis

Pregnancy and Newborn Loss Awareness Pin
Available at our events and groups.