Providing love and comfort to people experiencing pregnancy loss,
one blanket at a time.
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Hi, I'm Ashley.
I survived an entirely preventable, near-death miscarriage experience.
This life-changing event inspired the beginnings of
Here's my story:
On Valentine's Day, my world came crashing down after learning my daughter no longer had a heartbeat at my routine 14-week prenatal appointment. My husband and I were in shock after foolishly believing we were in the 'safe zone' of the 2nd trimester, and then it hit me that I am one of the 1.5 million women who experience a miscarriage each year in the US. It's a hell-on-earth club that no one wants to be a part of.
To add to this horrific news, I was also unable to access a necessary D&C for 6 days. A D&C is the medical procedure needed for a 'missed miscarriage' and is coded as a spontaneous abortion. I was sent home from the clinic with a pamphlet and told to wait it out. Two days later, the bleeding began. I went to the nearest ER to seek care, and was turned away because 'there's not much they could do to help' because I wasn't actively hemorrhaging. They handed me a plastic bucket, plastic gloves, gave me a good ole pat on the knee, and wished me the best.
After returning home, I ended up delivering my daughter in my toilet. And a few minutes after that, I ended up hemorrhaging, lost 1/3 of my total blood volume, and lost consciousness on my bathroom floor. My husband called an ambulance, and then I was able to get an emergency D&C. I was discharged the following day and given a print-out with instructions to take an iron supplement. Now that I think of it, my dog received more follow-up care at the vet for his seasonal allergies than I did losing my daughter. I share these details, because as terrible as my health care experience was, the most painful moment was walking out of the hospital empty handed, through the same doors that all the other parents were exiting with their car seats and bundles of joy. I don't know how to describe this feeling, besides it was the absolute fucking worst.
To work through the grief, I kept my hands busy by crocheting blankets for a local hospital. I can't prevent miscarriages, remodel the hospital doors, or redesign the US health care system overnight, but I could at least try to create cozy blankets so fewer women had to experience walking out of the hospital empty-handed. After sharing my story more broadly, there was an overwhelming response of support from the community. People were donating money to purchase yarn, their time to crochet blankets, and their willingness to share their own stories of loss to help others feel less alone.
Although there is beauty at the end of this ordeal, this was a needlessly traumatic experience that was a direct result of enacting policies that restrict access to reproductive health care. It's coupled with the fact there is no medical standard-of-care for miscarriages, something that 2x as frequent as heart attacks in the US. We must make it safer for people to be pregnant in this country, and we must provide more humanity to people as they endure unimaginable loss.
ow We Make a Difference
1-in-4 pregnancies end in loss, and for as common as this human experience is, it is many times physically and emotionally painful and isolating. There is also no medical standard-of-care or protocol to support the 1.5 million times a loss occurs each year in the US, which is dangerous for patients.
Although we cannot change the healthcare system overnight, we can help people feel cared for and less alone today. We do this by providing a cozy blanket to every person experiencing loss, handcrafted by a person who is deeply connected to this experience as well.
While we work to provide one-on-one comfort for each person, we're also committed to establishing a medical standard of care for all.
We'd love to work with you!
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