LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Giving birth is a blessing for so many mothers; however, grappling with grief after losing a child is something no one wants to experience.
October is National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month. I show how one local doctor and mother is continuing to heal two years after losing her daughter.
"Losing my daughter was truly one of the toughest things I've ever endured," said Dr. Audrey Sue Cruz, a physician at Intermountain Healthcare.
In 2021, she was expecting her second child, a baby girl. However, she got the news that no mother wants to hear.
"I found out that I had cervical insufficiency, which is when the cervix is not strong enough to hold the pregnancy, unfortunately," she said. "So, she was 21 weeks when I just went into labor. Her name was Elena Jasmin, and she is my angel."
November 30, 2021, Cruz became a statistic she never wanted to be a part of.
According to the National Library of Medicine, 1 in 4 pregnancies will be a miscarriage. Data from the CDC also shows that 1 in 100 pregnancies result in stillbirth; each year, about 24,000 babies are stillborn in the U.S.
Dr. Cruz continues to honor her daughter and carries her handprint on a necklace daily.
"It was very, very hard," she said. "And not a day goes by that I don't think about her."
However, this tragic and traumatic experience can have lingering effects on mothers like Cruz.
"It's a continuing healing process," she said. "I feel like it's not something that ever goes away. It's something you keep working through."
She says she had no idea it was common and how many women deal with the same struggles.
"I didn't even know if I would speak up about it," she said. "But doing so and being so open about it has led me to connect with many other women who have experienced the same thing."
Her biggest advice to other women going through the same thing is not to blame yourself and ask for help.
"If you need help, get that help. That's what I did," she said. "I knew I needed help. I knew I needed to speak to someone about this."
If you need help with the loss of a child, counselors for the Las Vegas Urban Leagues Women, Infants and Children program are available for support the rest of this month.
