A picture of my husband and I one week before
our precious angel Eric was taken from us.
My name is Juliana Vincent. I am a Daughter, sister, friend, and a wife. I was also about to be a mother, but at 28 weeks of pregnancy the unthinkable happened. My child passed away during birth. At that moment it became clear what I wanted to do with my life. I want to help other families cope with the devastating loss of a child.
I always wanted to be a social worker but did not think I was cut out for it. I was told that you have to learn how to disconnect emotionally from those you are trying to help. I have always been a very emotional person. If some one cries I am right there crying along side them. I can feel their pain. So after long consideration I decided that I was not cut out for the job. So what did I do I joined the Air Force after a couple of years wondering around trying to find my "calling". I was in the Air Force for 6 years as a Bioenvironmental Engineering Tech. Basically it is a fancy was of saying I was OSHA for the Air Force. My husband and I decided that when I got pregnant I would get out and be a stay at home mom for the first couple of years. We did not want to raise our children in a joint military household.
Then at 20 weeks the bottom fell out from under us. We were told that our baby boy was very sick and was not likely to make it past birth. We did not know what to do or say. How did this happen? Why us? We had no answers, in fact we still don't. We had no one to help us thru this bombshell. Yes, we had our family and friends but they were just as upset and shocked as we were. What we needed was an outside voice to help guide us thru this grief process. Unfortunately, we did not find one.
At 28 weeks, I was diagnosed with preeclamsia and was induced. We had not had time to process what was about to happen. We were still in the denial phase of the grief process. Then it happened. I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy that we named Eric. He passed away just two minutes after birth. What was supposed to be the happiest day of my life was by far the worst day. We had no one there to try and help guide us with the goodbye. That is when it became clear...I wanted to help the families that would go a similar experience. I did not want anyone to have to deal with this alone.
