Courageous Mama Values
- Empathy – We lead with empathy. Everything we do comes from the heart. Our goal is to wrap the pregnant after loss (PAL) mama in a blanket of loving kindness, respect, and non-judgmental understanding and validation that this journey is hard.
- Support – We are courageous PAL mamas offering other courageous PAL mamas peer-to-peer support. The backbone of what we do is based on a mutual support model that empowers all PAL mamas to lean on each other during this difficult time, either through writing, peer groups, or advocacy efforts.
- Inclusive – We do not define losses, compare them, or judge whose loss or PAL journey is more difficult than another. We include anyone who has had a loss and makes the courageous act of considering the journey of pregnancy and parenting again after a previous loss at any stage or age.
- Acknowledging Grief – At PALS we do not forget why this subsequent pregnancy is so challenging. We honor our children who have died, as well as other losses that accompany losing a child. We acknowledge our grief, attend to it, and nurture it, as we would the child we have lost.
- Nurture – We believe that nurturing each other and ourselves is of utmost importance as we walk the road of grief and joy after loss while trying for and carrying new life inside of us.
- Embracing Fear – As a courageous PAL mama, we choose to embrace our fears that come with trying to create life again. We don’t hide from them or ignore them. We look fear right in the face and declare, “Today you will not win!”
- Hope – At PALS we will hold onto hope for you if it’s too hard for you to do right now. We believe hope is what gets the PAL mama through each difficult day of this journey. Hope is what we provide for other courageous PAL mamas. Hope is what other courageous PAL mamas provide us.
- Quality – At PALS we strive to provide quality writing, programming, and evidence-based information for our community.
- Mindfulness – When we are offering support to others we are mindful of our own needs and self care as we create, take, and give to others who are also need their place, space, and time within PALS groups and community. We practice mindfulness in our own lives to foster peace and calm through the challenging pregnancy after loss journey.
- Boundaries and Limits – At PALS we believe in having and maintaining effective emotional and relationship boundaries with peers. As we provide support to others it’s important to know our own limits. Enforcing our own boundaries in relationships when helping others, along with practicing adequate self-care, helps us help others.
