"She was my safe place"

In May 2024 my husband and I received the devastating news our son had HLHS, half a heart, at our anatomy scan. After going through specialist consultant scans & researching what it could look like for us after birth we made the heart-breaking decision to stop our son suffering and go through with a compassionate induction. He was born at 21 weeks and 5 days.

After experiencing this immense grief I knew I needed support, that’s were Joanna became part of my story, we met in August 2024 and our sessions became a routine part of my life, helping me navigate grief, fear and guilt. She was my safe place.

TFMR comes with a huge amount of guilt, no matter how sure of it you are and knowing you’ve made a choice out of pure love, and Joanna showed me nothing but compassion and understanding throughout our conversations about our son.

When I found out just a few months later we were lucky enough to conceive again, our sessions became about my future as well as my past. We discussed all the feelings that came with grief around our son and our new pregnancy, she helped me deal with emotions around our many appointments and scans, telling our families & many many fears that followed me through pregnancy.

Not only was she understanding but was always so invested in our lives - Joanna was a huge part of it all. I truly can’t imagine how I would’ve managed all my big emotions without her being my sounding board, no matter what it was that particular week we spoke about all aspects of life.

As we passed our big anatomy scans & learned we were having a healthy daughter, Joanna always listened in glee to all the milestones we were hitting in this pregnancy. Reminding me constantly how well I was doing & that my feelings and emotions were always valid and just a reflection of the experiences we had been through.

As we approached our daughter's birth she helped me express my wishes around birth, and discussed how our sessions were coming closer to a close. After our daughter was born, we had a phone call when I felt very overwhelmed and in the newborn trenches struggling with big emotions and guilt. We booked for a final session and discussed all the things around our daughter’s birth.

Our daughter was born via Emergency C-Section after a failure to progress induction. This had brought a lot of emotions back I had suppressed surrounding our son's birth and we discussed it at length and spoke about how it came around from our son's birth and really just validated that many emotions can all exist at once, it was a beautiful session and I am truly sad to be closing this chapter with Joanna.

Although I know I do not need these sessions and know she will go on helping other parents who’ve experienced loss, I wish I could just have her on speed dial, she is and will always remain a huge part on our story to parenthood and there will never be enough words to explain how grateful I am for her. 

All my thanks forever.