by Melissa Willets posted in Pregnancy

Navigating daily life post-pregnancy loss is a struggle. As anyone who has endured the crushingly-painful grief that follows this cruel twist of fate knows, it's moment-to-moment, and sometimes, second-to-second. You float throughout your day, numb, feeling only small lifts of emotion that remind you of happiness, but most of the time, you keep your head down, and your eyes averted, and just. Get. Through. It.
Simple tasks become almost unbearable, like going into a coffee shop you used to frequent, pre-loss. Because now you are there, but your baby isn't. It's surreal, it seems cruel.
These moments will happen all day, every day. It's your new normal. And you almost get used to feeling on-edge and uneasy. But then, you see her; an acquaintance or friend who was pregnant at the same time as you were. And that is the most painful, awful, most leveling thing I've had to endure since my loss. I could be having a somewhat okay day, because that's the best it gets right now, and then, I'll see a mom I used to commiserate about pregnancy with, at the park. My reaction is involuntary; I feel my heart sink, my breath leaves me, I am hot, and frozen in place, overwhelmed with grief and shock. How could this have happened to me" My fears and an aching sadness wash over me anew.

I'll go home, and cry for an entire day after even just a brief encounter like this.  The worst part is that then, I'll start to berate myself for losing gro...