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parents and ask God to forgive them and help them through it. I know it is a rough road, as I have been there.

Did you know that 1 in 150 pregnancies end with stillbirth babies, to me that is a horrific statistic. Over half of those deaths occur for no known reason, which baffles me. Often it is a problem within the umbilical cord or the health of the mom, which causes stillborn babies to occur. In the case of my granddaughter, the cord was too long and it wrapped around her. We are lucky to know the cause of this, as most parents have no clue.

Like most parents who have had one of the stillborn babies, my daughter has gone on to have successful pregnancies and I have two beautiful grandchildren a girl and a boy. Yes, she is a very young mom at 21 with technically three children, two here and one above. She was barley seventeen when she gave birth to another child, and most people would say that is crazy she is too young but if she was older and had one of the stillborn babies people would have encouraged her to have another one quickly.

If you know someone who has had one of those stillborn babies, do not shun her, instead let her talk, as she is able. In our house, we talk of Kylie and she is still considered to be one of the grandchildren even though she got no birth certificate and to the government she did not exists. Did you know a baby has to draw a breath before she or he can get a birth certificate or even a certificate of death. Strange world we live in here, where she can be counted among the stillborn babies, the statistics, had funeral bills, was cremated, and even had a tombstone but she never got a birth certificate.

Each year on November 24, we release birthday balloons and this year there will be six of them. It is a good idea to celebrate the birthdays for these stillborn babies because to us they were alive, even if we just seen their ultrasound photos and felt their kicks from within. Stillborn babies may be gone but their families will never forget them nor will we ever quit loving and missing them.

Learn more about this author, Amy Jo Browne.
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