They Were Still Born: New Book Givewaway

I  received my long-awaited copy of the new stillbirth anthology They Were Still Born: Personal Stories about Stillbirth on Saturday.

 

Yes, I'm a contributing writer, and I'm pleased to say my chapter, What No One Tells You is the first chapter in the book. Contributors include Kara L.C. Jones (aka, Mother Henna), Angie Yingst (still life 365), Joanne Cacciatore (the MISS Foundation), and Sherokee Ilse (Wintergreen Press), among others. The book is edited by the fabulous Janel Atlas who lost her daughter Bea, and has a foreword by Elizabeth McCracken (An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination).

If you'd like to receive a copy of this book, leave your name in the comments section below, as well as the name of the baby in your life who was still born. Contest will remain open until December 3rd, when I will draw one winner's name out of a hat.

Still Here

One of my Facebook friends, Janel Atlas (editor of the anthology They Were Still Born: Personal Stories about Stillbirth, in which an essay about Ben's death will appear) (now available for pre-order on Amazon! And Barnes & Noble!) posted a link to this interesting article about how fetal cells remain in the mother's body for years after the baby's delivery.

Dr. Diana Bianchi (not to be confused with the Diana Bianchi who broke up Christie Brinkley's marriage to Peter Cook) is a pediatrician and researcher in fetal cell migration. She discovered, a decade ago, that fetal cells remain in a mother's body for many years, perhaps forever, after a pregnancy, whether that pregnancy is full-term or not. These cells somehow assist in healing the body, providing a therapeutic effect, migrating to the site of an injury or source of an illness, doing what they can to fix the problem.

Amazing, no?

They're still here, our babies. Still with us, still residing in our bodies. Not them, but part of them. And that makes me feel much differently about losing my son.

A New Book About Stillbirth

And this time, I'm in it.

Well, not exactly "in" it; I'm actually the author of one essay in a book slated to be published in November. It's called They Were Still Born: Personal Stories of Stillbirth. I was contacted by the book's editor, Janel Atlas, over a year ago to ask if I would be interested in contributing an essay to her proposed anthology, and I agreed. I'm very excited to hold a copy of the book in my hands.

It's available for pre-order now at Amazon.