Driving Positive Change and TFMR with Zara Dawson

Fertility Life Raft

I feel very humbled to be able to bring you this episode. I recently had this conversation with my friend Zara Dawson. Afterwards, I was really struck by the power of just sitting down with a cuppa, and listening. I hope you'll do the same... We speak about: - Zara and Lex's experience of going through a termination for medical reasons - the positive change Zara is doing so much to drive to support those going through such traumatic loss - the current lack of representation there is in media; major organisations and within the baby loss and infertility communities and why this must shift now. "I truly believe if we saw this written about and saw those four letters TFMR - we would feel part of this too. And be acknowledged. That’s all we want." "You walk into the hospital with a baby kicking away and you walk out with a heart so heavy you feel like you're drowning. You just feel heavy." "One lady wrote to me and said she asked for support, but her hospital told her ‘we don’t think you’d be welcome in a room with people who didn’t choose to lose their babies’. Change has to happen and it has to start today." Zara, her husband Lex and their son Jax have been through something no family should have to experience. The revelation that there are more cases of TFMR in the UK than registered stillbirths was really shocking to me and I realised I had a responsibility to help Zara with her mission to open up conversations around it by sharing on this platform. I urge you to have a listen to this episode, even if you haven't been through TFMR yourself; we talk about how to support someone who has been through it and what you could say and maybe try to avoid as well. Whether or not you know someone who has been through this, it's so important to get these conversations normalised to help those who are there, listening but silent about their losses because of the lack of coverage on this issue. Zara is open, honest and absolutely driven to help others who desperately need better representation and support and as usual - somehow we managed to have a laugh too...because finding the light in all this is vital to all of us. My enormous thanks to Zara and family for allowing me to share their experience. You can find support here: https://www.arc-uk.org/ https://petalscharity.org/ And contact Zara through Instagram @littlenorfolkcottage Live events from Cat and Alice will be running throughout the year catandalice.com to meet others going through loss or infertility, including our London Night Out on March 14th. The Rainbow Running Club also hold regular UK wide events too https://www.rainbowrunningclub.co.uk/ I am always here to listen too. Feel free to message me on Instagram @thisisalicerose, drop me an email [e-mail] or go to my website thisisalicerose.com Please do share this episode far and wide, subscribe to this podcast and leave a rating or review on Apple if you have a minute or so. Your reviews mean that more people find my work and get the support they need. Sending much love and empathy to all... I’m running a free live event, Reclaiming You, on 21 April and 22 April for anyone trying to bring home a baby and finding themselves feeling lost; stuck in a ‘left behind’ mentality; exhausted and in comparison mode. Read more about it, to see if it’s suitable for you and join me by saving your space here. Take care, Alice x

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