Beware those with sensitive constitutions. The pictures on the website are exactly what the above headline says.
His name is Will…. and he is “still”.
If you didn’t know he was stillborn you might have thought he was a baby sleeping in his stroller. That’s because Will is hardly the image most people conjure up when they hear a baby was “stillborn”. But for the lack of a beating heart, he would be just like any other baby. Except for one brief moment in time, his parents will never get to hold him in their arms again.
Some stillborn babies have physical deformities, but they’re few and far between. And some stillborn babies, who are not delivered until days after their death, will not have Will’s pink cheeks. But they are beautiful nonetheless. Ten fingers, ten tiny toes, and a turned up nose. Just “still”.
[…]
For the fight against stillbirth to be successful we need to enlist public aid by helping them to understand that our stillborn children were really B-A-B-I-E-S!We’ve all heard that a picture is worth a thousand words. We know there must be hundreds of proud stillbirth parents who have a cherished picture of their baby like Will that they are willing to share with the world. Our goal is to assemble enough pictures to be able to demonstrate that yes, these were really B-A-B-I-E-S.
“there must be hundreds of proud stillbirth parents” //////
Says more than intended. Emotional rather than practical orientations to reality really do cause a lot more hurt and damaging feelings than positive ones==for everyone involved and a few ripples outward.
If first you don’t succeed…
I should have a brother four years older than me, except he only lived for about 3 weeks. I can only remember my parents mentioning him once, ever. Had the web been around all those years ago, I have no idea what they would have done, if anything, but it’s surely a case of “you have to be there to understand”, I would say.
As a parent of a stillborn, I can sympathize with the thought. However, posting pictures is about as appropriate as a webcam in a funeral home. The grief of stillbirth, particularly full term, is profound, long lasting, and private to a family.
#3–byron==how solipsistic. I have “life experiences.” Where is it exactly that I need to be in order to understand just what exactly?
Are some still births natures way of eliminating the weak? Survival of the fittest.
Maybe the shock of being born is too great and they can’t take it.
I don’t think it is “creepy”.
I think it is parents mourning and showing love for a child that never quite made it into our world.
Most if not all (?) of these stillborns were in fact alive at one point, they died prior to birth. You’d think statistically some of them would have lived if they had been birthed via caesarian a few weeks to a month earlier.
This is sick…
Hey…if it helps, then let them do it. Just cause you don’t understand it doesn’t mean they don’t. It is not hurting anyone.
The only question in my mind is if it helps or hinders the parent’s grieving process. I bet it helps in the short term. In the long term, I dunno.
How absolutely creepy.
so what? Taking pics of your dead babies was very common in the 1800s up to the 1910s or 20s. With infant/child mortality what it was, dead kids were a lot more common, and photographers were enlisted to preserve their visages. (Victorian dead baby photos are highly collectible now.) When people had wakes in their kitchens, death wasn’t so invisible or horrifying. Maybe it was better that way.
I’m at the age where I shall soon croak according to statistics. The idea that someone is going to prop me up in the corner of the kitchen would be enough to keep me hanging on forever.
Death should be respected and the dead should be properly disposed of. Like I want to be put on a wooden boat filed with firewood, my stiff body on top and sent sailing off into the sunset in blazing glory. It would be really nice if a fat lady wearing a fur coat and a hat with horns could sing real loud while I drift away.
Won’t happen I know, damn people of Cleveland are not about to let me clutter up Lake Erie that way. Coast Guard would probably pitch a shit fit too. But it’s a nice idea.
Dead people are property of the State. There should be a recycling program to take the most advantage of this resource:
1. Render the fat into bio fuel.
2. Crush the bones for fertilizer.
3. Extract metals for reuse.
4. Tissue for dog food.
Silly not to.
Whats next, the Little Miss Dead Baby Pageant?
Love the child that did not make it, but don’t show them off. A lamb shaped tombstone is plenty enough.
Look at the bright side, the babies are with God fluttering around in their lil’ naked glory around the other Catholic priest who also went to Heaven.
Just out of curiosity, any of the posters here parents? I can’t say this would be my cup of tea if this happened to my wife and myself, but I can certainly empathize. I know know they’re putting it “out there”, which just begs to be judged, but pain like that, I just can’t pass judgment on them.
#13: Soylent Green?
#17–Uncle Dave==as you know, all of my posts are completely serious, rational, and well thought out.
I would support Soylent Green except for the safety factor in stopping the spread of human borne diseases. Thats why I did not suggest feeding the flesh to pigs==because we eat pigs. No, feed human remains to dogs, and then feed the dogs to cats. Then feed the cats and dogs to turtles or crockodiles–few diseases will jump a phyllum.
What to do with the teeth? Cinderblock fill?
I haven’t been in there shoes, but I do know that if you start talking privately with men and women, you’ll find a LOT more who’ve had stillbirths and late miscarriages (when it’s born and LOOKS like a baby already, but too early to live) than you’d realize. Most of the time our society is told to sweep this under the rug and not talk about it.
Some people are trying to change that, because as any shrink can tell you, you can’t heal what you don’t acknowledge.
A lot of these people are probably too distraught or embarrassed to discuss it with their family and friends, so they turn to the anonymous web instead.
I think it’s probably a healthy thing for them to do. And if you don’t like looking at pictures of dead babies, then don’t go to the site.
This is the most distasteful thing since dead baby jokes!
Still my favorite: Whats the difference between a truck load of dead babies and a truck load of bowling balls?
You can’t off load the bowling balls with pitch forks.
My favorite part is the logo with the conehead baby.
A good friend of mine is an OB/GYN and he was looking to start a publication for women that just had babies to discuss breast feeding, postpartum depression etc. and just couldn’t come up with a name. I suggested After Birth, I swear some people just can’t take a joke.
Grief is a personal thing guys, and making fun of those who are hurting is in far worse taste than their site.
It likely will help some of them feel better about life and move on — others will latch onto it and never rise above their grief (these would be the ones that start writing stories about what their baby would have been.)
All in all, there are events in human life that require others to be patient and accepting even if we find it disturbing. You may want to try being human now and then instead of a cardboard cut-out sarcastic twit.
#24 – Oh come on Jim, lighten the fuck up. Good grief (no pun).
Yeap==the whole point of “withdrawing” into your grief is so that you don’t run into asshats that don’t care.
I’m sure Jim (#24) that you don’t mean grieving parents should go out and post on blog sites and expect everyone to kiss their ass do you? No, I thought not.
There is a time and place for everything==reverence, irreverence, tangents, bible thumping, and cartoons.
Dvorak “Uncensored” is clue.
“After Birth”==most excellent.
Their poison wombs are making heaven crowded.
I think that this is a good way for parents to show the world that they in fact are human and a little nuts with grief. It’s a good thing for everyone, no one can make offensive comments on the site (just here) and the parents hopefully don’t implode with depression. It serves a purpose. Laugh or cry or something in between, I bet everyone has at least checked the website and now have an answer to their question.