Grief can be lonely and isolating, especially for those experiencing pregnancy and infant loss. At times, it may even feel as if the sorrow might consume you. Join your host, Michelle Smith, Certified Grief Counseling Specialist, and Birth and Bereavement Doula/Chaplain, as she holds a much-needed space for grief, remembrance, and your unique journey of healing through conversations with grief experts, the sharing of stories of loss and love, and guided meditations. Welcome to a place where your baby and you can feel seen, heard, and held.
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Grief can be lonely and isolating, especially for those experiencing pregnancy and infant loss. At times, it may even feel as if the sorrow might consume you. Join your host, Michelle Smith, Certified Grief Counseling Specialist, and Birth and Bereavement Doula/Chaplain, as she holds a much-needed space for grief, remembrance, and your unique journey of healing through conversations with grief experts, the sharing of stories of loss and love, and guided meditations. Welcome to a place where your baby and you can feel seen, heard, and held.
Michelle shares the first of 3 meditations intended for healing during or after an abortion. This first meditation, Connect, is based on the Tibetan Buddhist practice of Vase Breathing or Complete Breathing. It's an invitation to tune into the body, recognize the tendencies of the mind, and release unwanted or intrusive thoughts. It teaches the listener to return to their breath when their thoughts are not serving them. The benefits of this meditation extend beyond healing after an abortion. This type of breathing helps with anxiety, depression, managing stress, improving focus, better sleep, and faster recovery from exercise or exertion. Slow breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system, also called the “rest and digest” system. It activates the vagus nerve which oversees things like mood, digestion, and heart rate. It will also send more oxygen to the brain and other organs. This practice is meant to be used throughout life.
For those of us at Calm Birth meditation that have been working on this Calm Abortion project, it is our hope that these meditations help to invite healing for whoever chooses to listen, no matter how long ago they experienced an abortion for any reason or circumstance.
"Abortion is the medical term for the ending of a pregnancy, whether that is a spontaneous miscarriage or medically induced. This term encompasses the termination of all pregnancies. I realize and want to acknowledge that even the term abortion can be quite triggering, especially for someone that has experienced pregnancy and infant loss. And, in my experience of working in the perinatal field for over 20 years and holding a space for grief and trauma with my clients, the ending of a pregnancy has never been taken lightly. I carry their stories with me. Stories of relief, ectopic pregnancy, forced abortion, intense grief and pain when their baby in the womb will not live once they are born and/or will be living in extreme pain for their short life, twin to twin transfer, a mixture of sadness and relief when ending a pregnancy they were unprepared or happened at a difficult time in their life, guilt and shame, feelings of not deserving the baby they are now pregnant with, the belief that they had a miscarriage because they terminated a pregnancy, the decision to end a wanted pregnancy because their partner is abusive and she needs to leave the relationship before she and her other child are killed. Abortion is a part of perinatal loss and bereavement. And as Sunni has shared in our episodes, adoption is not an easy answer or quick fix. There are so many vulnerable and intimate stories that I have been entrusted with and honor fully. "—Michelle
Learn more about the Calm Abortion meditations at Instagram @calmabortion and Facebook @calmabortion
Resources: ACOG (The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) Statement on Abortion Bans, World Health Organization's statement on abortion, Evidence Based Birth: Abortion Research Resource Guide, and Grief After Abortion: healing from unspoken loss
Birth Ease Loss Support
Grief can be lonely and isolating, especially for those experiencing pregnancy and infant loss. At times, it may even feel as if the sorrow might consume you. Join your host, Michelle Smith, Certified Grief Counseling Specialist, and Birth and Bereavement Doula/Chaplain, as she holds a much-needed space for grief, remembrance, and your unique journey of healing through conversations with grief experts, the sharing of stories of loss and love, and guided meditations. Welcome to a place where your baby and you can feel seen, heard, and held.
