Holding Space for Pregnancy Loss

Holding Space for Pregnancy Loss Training

Facilitated by Joanne Zerdy, PhD

About the Training

I am a grieving mother, herbalist, and educator; I advocate for normalizing grief. And I’ve taught this course to more than 190 participants since 2019. My experience of parenthood is complex: my first son Finlay died inexplicably during childbirth in 2014; my second son Phalen arrived healthy in 2016; I learned that my third son Ren had a complex congenital heart condition while he was in utero; he arrived in 2019. I parent my three children differently, and I learn from them every day about the complexity of life, death, grief, healing, love, and compassion. My teaching of this training relies on this embodied awareness of grief and loss as well as my experience as an academic researcher and a university professor in theatre arts. (Click HERE to read my story.) I teach on behalf of The Institute for the Study of Birth, Breath, and Death and in partnership with Inviting Abundance, co-founded by my husband Will Daddario and myself. To learn more about our Creative Grief Work, please go HERE.

The training in Holding Space for Pregnancy Loss, as created by Amy Wright Glenn (founder of The Institute for the Study of Birth, Breath, and Death), guides participants through a heartfelt analysis of three key components central to caring for, supporting, and serving grieving mothers and their families in the anticipation and aftermath of pregnancy or infant loss. Examples of this kind of loss include, but are not limited to, miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, molar pregnancy, stillbirth, and infant death. This training also thinks ahead, offering ideas for how you can continue to offer compassion and care in the months and years to come.

The Three Key Components of the Training:

• An Introduction to the Companioning Model of Care outlined by Alan Wolfelt, Founder and Director of the Center for Loss & Life Transition. This model understands grieving as a healthy, natural process that requires compassion and support and not as a medical condition that needs to be treated or cured. We’ll also consider this model as applied to perinatal loss by Jane Heustis & Marcia Jenkins.

• A Discussion of the Support Networks that surround bereaved mothers and Best “Care Practices” that aim to strengthen these networks and provide support for the caregivers themselves.

• An Exploration of the Healing Power of Ritual. We delve into this broad topic by examining the power of everyday rituals to aid in processing grief and in maintaining connection with loved ones who have died. We will explore rituals for death, grief, and remembrance.

Who Should Take This Training?

YOU Should, If the Following Applies to You:

• you serve, support, assist, or work with pregnant and postpartum persons

• you haven’t received dedicated training for encountering and processing pregnancy loss and infant death OR you have done some training and would like some additional perspectives and materials to support your work

• you want to feel confident assisting a client/patient/colleague/friend, their partner and family during a time of infertility, pregnancy loss, or infant death

• you think it might be beneficial to reflect on your own experiences with loss, death, and grief as you work to provide the best care for those who are grieving

• you wish to connect with compassionate and skilled caregivers to grow your own support network

• you are excited to learn about various resources for grief, loss, and bereavement in order to better serve a grieving client, colleague, or friend

To Prepare for our Training:

I encourage all workshop participants to read one or both of the following books: What God Is Honored Here? Writings on Miscarriage and Infant Loss by and for Native Women and Women of Color, edited by Shannon Gibney and Kao Kalia Yang; and Holding Space—On Loving, Dying, and Letting Ago by Amy Wright Glenn. This reading is Recommended, but NOT Required. FYI: I’m happy to suggest additional related titles, if you are already familiar with these works and would like to read another text.

Participants Receive:

I sincerely hope that you will leave our workshop feeling more informed and empowered to care for those affected by pregnancy loss and infant death AND inspired to continue your own learning about the topic. Additionally, I hope that you will have made meaningful connections with other members in our group who may make beneficial allies and provide additional resources for your ongoing work.

After our work together, you will receive:

• a Certificate of Completion that attests to your 5- or 6-hour training

• Handouts with Resources and Quotations from the Training

• a 30% Discount on Finlay’s Garden herbal products

• a 50% Discount on my self-paced Grief Mapping Course for you or a friend

• Discounted Membership to the Institute for the Study of Birth, Breath, and Death

• Access to a Holding Space for Pregnancy Loss Facebook Group (with 400+ members)

**Regarding CEUs: If you are a doula, mental health professional, medical care provider, et al. who would like to use this training toward Continuing Education Credits, I strongly encourage you to reach out to your certifying/licensing organization before the workshop to find out what you need to do in order for this training to fulfill their requirements.

**Many previous students have told me how beneficial this training has been to them - professionally & personally - without earning CEUs for it.

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