062 Stillbirthday: A Pregnancy Loss is Still a Birthday with Heidi Faith
As we move into November, Michelle finishes up her series honoring Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness with this tender conversation with Heidi Faith, president and CEO of Stillbirthday. Heidi shares her very personal journey that led her to found Stillbirthday Global Network, which is an internationally trusted benevolent organization whose philanthropic mission is simply to doula: to nurture sources of perinatal bereavement, strengthen skills of healthcare professionals and increase healthy engagement of perinatal related needs among communities. Together Heidi and Michelle discuss the depth of the resource that Stillbirthday is for families experiencing baby loss and for professionals alike, suggestions for supporting a bereaved mother, the ways in which grief is like a tapestry, and a reminder that it is okay to be vulnerable and go slowly when navigating grief.
“A woman experiences a miscarriage literally every minute. Every minute in just the US alone.”—Heidi Faith
About Heidi Faith:
Heidi is an international speaker and the founder, president, and CEO of Stillbirthday, which is the legacy of her fourth child, who died and was born in the first trimester on April 19, 2011. The vision for Stillbirthday is not only deeply personal, intimate and closely special, but is here to spread our paradigm globally of truly understanding the importance and sacredness of the places where birth and bereavement meet. With a background in social work and counseling of abused and at-risk youth, when Heidi became pregnant with her first child she felt her calling shift to clinical perinatal psycho-spiritual therapy and birth support work.
As an Emergency Services Chaplain and certified Grief & Loss Coach, Heidi completed her studies through the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary and is a member of the American Academy of Christian Counselor’s (AACC) Grief, Crisis and Disaster division.
Heidi holds certificates through Cascade Christian Childbirth Association in birth education and labor support and is a member of the International Christian Childbirth Coalition. As a double certified crisis pregnancy counselor in pre- and post-abortive counseling, she began the Newborn Adoption Doula Network, which provides birth support to families experiencing the transition of fostering or adoption. Heidi has received additional training through Kansas City Hospice and Palliative Care, and Hospice Foundation of America’s Hospice Clergy End-of-Life Education Project. Her long term goal is to open Stillbirthday Palliative Birth Center.
Contact Heidi:
Website: stillbirthday.com
Facebook: stillbirthday.com
Instagram: @stillbirthday
Contact Michelle Smith:
Website: BirthEaseServices.com
Facebook: Birth Ease, The Birth Ease Podcast, Birth Ease Baby Loss Support
Instagram: @birtheasemichellesmith, @birtheaselossssupport
YouTube: Birth Ease
LinkedIn: Birth Ease Michelle Smith
Pinterest: Birth Ease
Show: Birth Ease
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