Healing from Pregnancy Loss as a Community

Seven years ago, Stephanie Crawford had the worst experience of her life: her son, Simeon, was stillborn.

As she healed, she founded a community of women who had experienced similar loss so that they could gather, share, and process their grief together.

“I believe that God has a purpose for everyone in life, and sometimes we have to go through really hard situations in order to find our purpose,” she shares.

Video Transcript

Stephanie Crawford: Seven years ago, I had the worst experience of my life. At 39-weeks pregnant, my baby’s heart stopped beating. I gave birth to my stillborn son, Simeon Jelani Crawford. And I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to live again.

In the face of her loss, Stephanie built a community focused on healing. She brought women together to share their stories and hardship.

Stephanie: So I believe that God has a purpose for everyone in life. And sometimes we have to go through really hard situations in order to find our purpose. I started a nonprofit for women who have experienced the same type of loss, so that they would be able to have what I didn’t have: someone to help them see the light and live again.

When you just get women in a room, you find out that we all have a very similar story. One in four women has lost a child. Moms are affected, families are affected, people are affected by not being able to heal the right way. And so it went from me just saying, “Moms need to heal correctly,” to really wanting to reach out to people and show them that it’s possible to heal in a positive way.

Today, Stephanie has 17 godchildren from this community.

Stephanie: I have 17 godchildren. We’ve gone places and we all dress up the same. We wear the same shirts. And when people say, “What are you all dressed up for?” They are the first ones to say, “For our cousin,” or, “our god-brother. And we’re here for him. He passed away, but we celebrate him every year. His name is Simeon.”

I knew that one day God would bless me with another child. Now I am 22-weeks pregnant with my “rainbow baby,” who will come exactly eight years after Simeon was stillborn.