This episode discusses infant loss, extremely premature birth, and a newborn's life-threatening illness. Please take care while listening.
Hannah carried her daughter out of the hospital in her arms. Olive had died two days earlier, at 22 weeks, after Hannah's waters broke and her medical team told her there was nothing more they could do.
Hannah is a midwife and mother of three girls. After a normal first pregnancy, her second ended when her cervix failed at 22 weeks, too early for her daughter Olive to survive. Hannah and her husband made the devastating decision to let her go peacefully rather than pursue interventions with almost no chance of a good outcome, and spent 24 hours with her before saying goodbye.
Two years later, her third daughter Nora was born at 28 weeks after months of preterm labour and a second cervical stitch. Nora survived, but contracted meningitis three separate times in her first months of life, spending weeks in NICU and undergoing multiple surgeries before finally coming home well.
In this episode, Hannah shares what it actually looked like to carry a pregnancy knowing her baby wouldn't survive, why she started making ceramic urns by hand for other bereaved families, and how she found her way back to feeling like herself after loss most people can't imagine surviving.
This episode explores:
- Infant loss and pregnancy loss at 22 weeks
- Cervical insufficiency and cervical stitch
- Extremely premature birth and NICU
- Meningitis in newborns and premature babies
- Retained placenta and postpartum complications
- Grief, memory making and honouring a baby who died
- Explaining loss to an older sibling
- Rebuilding a family after infant loss
If you've experienced the loss of a baby, are navigating a high risk or extremely premature pregnancy, or simply want to understand what this kind of grief actually looks like, this conversation will stay with you.
Support is available.
🇦🇺 Red Nose Grief and Loss Support: 1300 308 307
SANDS Australia: 1300 072 637
🇺🇸 Star Legacy Foundation
🇬🇧 Sands UK: 0808 164 3332
Follow Hannah and Olive & Kin, and follow us at Awake at 3am and Sophia's Sleep School for more real stories of motherhood, sleep and survival.
