Pregnancy After a Loss, by Carol Cirulli Lanham
As I write this, I’m neither physically nor emotionally ready to conceive again, but the first couple of chapters of the book have really helped me to sort out my feelings about trying again. Lanham really lays out all the possibilities (trying again now, trying again later, TTC despite infertility, not trying again). She shares her story (stillbirth at term) and the stories of many other women who’ve suffered miscarriage, stillbirth, and infant death (including SIDS). But she doesn’t try to tell you what you should do. She just lays out all the considerations, including the pros and cons of staying with the same OB or going to someone else (second opinion is also an option). She also has a good chapter about investigating what went wrong (and dealing with feelings of guilt and all the “what-ifs.”) The later chapters present a trimester-by-trimester guide to getting through pregnancy after a loss. Like I said, I’m not ready, so I haven’t read those chapters. But so far, I really like this book – it’s very well-written and presents a really thorough and balanced look at multiple issues.
