Remembering Michael: Rewriting my Story of Stillbirth

By Danielle LaRocque and Nigel Burk

Danielle LaRocque is a West Kootenay author and educator who is passionate about bringing the benefits of creative writing to people of all ages, backgrounds, experience levels, and socioeconomic groups (see https://www.rootedinwriting.ca/our-team for more information). In June 2019, Danielle experienced a term stillbirth with her first son, Michael. A response to this trauma, Remembering Michael reads as Danielle's emotional tapestry of healing from the trauma of stillbirth through different forms of writing, including research writing, personal essay work, poetry, and journaling. Throughout this ode to healing, Danielle brings the reader along with her through her healing process, describing the unique benefits of the different forms of writing and her own experiences in writing these pieces. Moreover, the narrative is grounded in the research on healing through writing, including guidance on replacing a dispiriting story with an uplifting one (Meijers & Lengelle, 2012), research on the psychology behind writing for healing purposes (MacCurdy, 2000), information on healing through poetry (Kooser, 2005), and more. Remembering Michael is split into six sections that follow the chronological order of Danielle's experience with stillbirth, as follows. Section One: Losing Michael outlines her experience of finding out that Michael had passed away and coming to terms with the imminent labour and birth with this new lens. Section Two: Labour & Delivery follows the labour process, complications faced, and Michael's birth. Section Three: Healing Pains outlines the first few months following the birth, including returning home, getting Michael cremated, and planning Michael's memorial. Section Four: A New Story describes the way in which writing strengthened Danielle to heal and grow in the months following the stillbirth; it also describes how this shocking and tragic story turned into one of appreciative remembrance of a son she never took home. Section Five: His Perspective includes an interview with Danielle's partner, Nigel Burk, as he outlines his own trauma experience as the father of a son lost to stillbirth and his own process of healing through writing. The final section, Section Six: Process, Readiness, & Revision, provides a discussion on Danielle's process of utilizing writing for healing purposes, including a contemplation on her experience with (and readiness for) the use of therapeutic writing as both personal and academic study after such a traumatic life event, as well as a note about the importance of the revision process in writing for healing. Finally, to support other women and newborns in British Columbia, 15% of the author's earnings from Remembering Michael ebook and print book sales will be donated to BC Women's Hospital + Health Centre, an organization whose main goal is to improve the health of women and newborns in British Columbia. Visit http://www.bcwomens.ca/ for more information about this cause.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1660819377
• ISBN13: 9781660819379
• Release Date: January 2020
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 198 Pages
• Weight: 0.79 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.5" x 6.0"