Every woman who carries a pregnancy expects to receive their bundle of joy after 9 months. Sometimes, however, matters beyond her control make it impossible for her to do so, and her anticipation for a baby is instead clouded with loss of the pregnancy and feelings of hopelessness thereafter.
Since things do not always pan out the way we expect them to, a woman expecting delivery might sometimes be forced to go home with nothing but emptiness in her heart.
Still A Mum seeks to shine a spotlight on this woman: The woman who after carrying a pregnancy to term or for a few months, loses the pregnancy and has to contend with not being called ‘Mum’. The woman who, in spite of eating healthy and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, is unable to conceive. The woman who, regardless of being able or unable to conceive, desires to give a home to a homeless child through adoption.
Still A Mum seeks answers to very pertinent questions like; how will that woman who just lost her baby deal with her loss? What will steer her off depression and propel her to come to terms with her loss? How will that woman who wants to adopt a child go through the adoption process? What can that woman (and her partner) dealing with infertility do to increase her chances of conceiving? Better yet; how can we, as a society, ease the feeling of loss suffered by a woman who just had a miscarriage? How do we ensure that she is able to carry on without feeling that she is less of a woman?
Still A Mum comes from a desire to celebrate women who have lost babies, to affirm that they are still mothers despite their loss. That their worth is not attached to their ability to be mothers and that a miscarriage or infertility does not make them less of women.
The Still A Mum campaign desires to fight passionately the social segregation of these women in society. To fight stigma that is so ingrained to a point that these women are sometimes considered bewitched. It seeks to put a stop to the perception that to handle childlessness, in-laws only need to look for a child-bearing woman for their son, to take the place of the wife who is unable to conceive.
Here is a sobering statistic: Every pregnancy has a one out of 10 chance of miscarriage. And that is on a good day. On a very bad day, one out of 4 pregnancies will end in miscarriage. We clearly need to talk more about this.
October 15th is the world pregnancy and infant loss day. Still A Mum will be commemorating this day every year as a way of giving affected women a support forum.
We have partnered with Still A Mum to commemorate this day and to use this chance to have this very important conversation.
Details:
DATE: Thursday, 15th October 2015
VENUE: Nailab, 4th floor Bishop Magua Centre, Ngong Road
TIME: 6pm – 8pm
Register your attendance here
