Honoring Pregnancy and Infant Loss

Pregnancy and infant loss is so often cloaked in secrecy and shame and stigma, despite being as common as occurring in 1 in 4 pregnant people.

October highlights Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month, with October 15th singled out as a day of remembrance. We are grateful to have Lola Brognano, LCSW on the podcast to discuss her experience supporting parents and families who have experienced perinatal loss.

Lola is an extensively trained Licensed Clinical Social Worker in Tallahassee, Florida where she is currently in private practice and spends most of her day educating her community and raising awareness that Perinatal Mental Health Care is a necessity, not a privilege. She is a certified Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorder Specialist, a Birth Trauma Level 2 Specialist, and a Pregnancy & Infant Loss Advocate.
Lola’s work is centered around Perinatal/Maternal Mental Health issues, nurses and their secondary trauma from the L&D/NICU, Perinatal & Infant Loss/Grief, Obstetric Violence/Birth Trauma that is inclusive of High Risk Pregnancies & Maternal Near-Misses, and the Fertility Spectrum to include IVF, Adoption, Surrogacy and Infertility.
Being committed to supporting those affected with and by Perinatal Mood and Anxiety issues, as well as having received extensive training through Postpartum Support International, the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists, and the Florida Maternal Quality Care Collaborative, Lola has been able to ensure her clients receive whole-person centered, quality and specialized Mental Health Care. She has served as a Visiting Professor at Florida State University’s College of Social Work. She was also the Field Placement Coordinator for the Division of Social Work at Thomas University, where she mentored student interns into clinical social workers.
Lola currently provides specialized consultation for providers, supervision for clinical interns and is the Facilitator for Cherished moms’s monthly virtual Perinatal Grief & Loss Support Group. Follow her work on Instagram and Facebook.

Grief is a long, hard, and complicated process. How we walk alongside families as they process the loss of a pregnancy or infant matters.

Join us in conversation as we explore:

~finding words to validate loss

~creating collaborative care processes to support parents

~breaking down stigma and abolishing the “grief expiration date”

~the purpose of support groups

~learning to live with loss when experiencing future pregnancies

~navigating cultural mismatch in grief practices

~secondary trauma and grief support for birthworkers

For more information and support navigating perinatal loss:

For parents:

RTZ Hope

Postpartum Support International Bereavement Groups

Star Legacy Foundation

Sisters in Loss with Erica McAfee

Life After Miscarriage, Perinatal Loss, & Stillborn

Books:

It’s OK That You’re Not OKMeeting Grief and Loss in a Culture That Doesn’t Understand

What God is Honored Here? Writings on Miscarriage and Infant Loss by and for Native Women and Women of Color

Swallowed by a SnakeThe Gift of the Masculine Side of Healing

Sometimes I Cry In The Shower: A Grieving Father’s Journey To Wholeness And Healing