Today I Begin To Tell My Story

Hello!  My name is Gale and I birthed two stillborn babies.  My blog will reflect on living with these events for the past 37 years. 
 
 James Collins Fitts, Jr. was stillborn May 2, 1975.  I was 9 months pregnant with my very first baby when he finally "dropped down" to be born.  When James, Jr. dropped, the umbilical cord tightened.  A double loop was in the cord which most likely happened while he was still just a tiny thing in my third month swimming around so freely.  He didn't realize he was making loops in his life line to me.  These were the two loops that tightened and made a double knot just as he was making his entrance into this world and into my arms.  James Collins, Jr. died without crying out loud.

Reita Gale Fitts was stillborn May 31, 1982.  She was the last of my 4 children to be born, my only daughter.  She wasn't to be born until October of that year.  I had only been wearing maternity clothes for a few weeks when I noticed my swollen belly had been quiet that day.  I knew before the doctor confirmed it that my daughter was dead.  She had been a fiesty one pounder moving and kicking so much that she had twisted her umbilical cord around and around until it closed off and she died.  Once more grief's grip had hold of every part of my being.

Thus ends my first post, but not my story.  I will get it out blog by blog.  I will let you know how it felt then and how it feels now.  I hope this blog can help at least one mother and father out there who is coping with stillbirth.  I will end with this question.  Why, with all of the technology out there, why are stillbirths up in the US?

Gale