Announcement - Genesis Ob-Gyn and Embrace Circle form a special collaboration!

Genesis Ob-Gyn Clinics, led by CEO, Chris Sullivan, MD and Maternal Fetal Medicine doctor, Stephanie Hedstrom have combined resources with Sherokee Ilse, co-founder of the Embrace Circle and President of Babies Remembered and Baby Loss Family Advisors to create a partnership of care supporting families who have a miscarriage, stillbirth, NICU death or a fragile pregnancy.

This is the most exciting paradigm of care that has taken 30+ years of work to create.  It connects parents at the earliest stage of their loss with Loss Advisors who offer them guidance, time, resources and the atypical opportunity to prepare.  This then reduces shock and helps with bringing some calm and peace to families.   Instead of families getting the news then being sent off to the hospital where they are akin to 'deer in headlights.' At this crazy time they are asked to make life-altering decisions that they had never imagined would be put before them. Over the decades, this has kept all the pressure on the hospital staff's shoulders to be the ones to try to create a trusting relationship while helping parents make choices who are still in the depths of shock and disbelief.  Too many families have shared their deep dissatisfaction  because they did not know what they did not know and weren't always able to understand why they would see, hold, cuddle, and make memories when all they could do was cry and feel a rush to 'get it over with.'   

Our families who receive this pre-admittance care, come to the hospital with a better sense of preparation - in many cases they already have a Birth and Parenting Plan/Vision which allows the staff to take them to higher levels of involvement and parenting of their baby.  Even mothers who are admitted, but are given this one-on-one support, have been transformed from a place of fear to calm when given the time to meet with Baby Loss Family Advisors in person or via phone/facetime.  Slowing things down and gently, but persistently arming parents with information, ideas, and guidance about their options and opportunities to parent their baby while he or she are still on earth and with family has proven to be a most effective and unique strategy.  

The new Genesis-Embrace Circle collaboration has create a program which has been in the testing phase since December with minimal services offered.  Beginning officially in September, patients of the Genesis Ob-Gyn Clinics in Tucson will receive comprehensive care which starts with an offer of immediate connection to Embrace Circle teammates (trained Baby Loss Family Advisors) who are trained to offer one-on-one care when a baby dies and over support and resources over time.  Some of the services that will augment the caring work of all the Genesis practioners include:
-One-on-One Guidance after Life-Limiting Diagnosis
-Meet with Parents & Medical Providers During Pregnancy
-Birth-Parent Preferences Planning for all types of losses
-Home Hospice Support 
-One-on-One Support & Guidance When Baby is Born or Dies
-Hospital Support - Help with Welcoming and Saying Goodbye
-Discharge and Returning Home Guidance
-Extended Family Teaching to Promote Ongoing Support
-Follow-up Appointment & Assessment with Medical Director
-Support Groups, Personal Grief Mentoring, and Events
-Sensitive Sonograms
-Support and Guidance During Rainbow Pregnancy After Loss
​-Continuing Education for Sonographers, Birth Providers and other staff

Parents will be offered a packet of helpful literature and some memory items; they will be tended to by trained sonographers who have received extra training on how to sensitively offer a transition of care that allows the practioners to then give the bad news with kindness and concern.  

Families will be given the choice to opt in to a call from an Embrace Circle teammate in the early hours after their loss.  Baby Loss Advisors/Loss Doula can offer guidance and suggestions on--how to let the love for their  baby drive decisions (instead of fear and shock);  how to create birth/parenting visions, ways to involve family in order to further relationship and ongoing support; and how to welcome baby, create memories and mementos, and say goodbye in special ways.  

Support is offered through phone, email, text and social media as is appropriate along with in person and online groups.  Literature, articles, poems, and more are shared as well as other resources and healing modalities.   A wellness visit will soon be added to the services.  A doctor will review the loss experience, test results, address questions, concerns and fears.  Additionally, an Embrace grief specialist will discuss emotional, spiritual, mourning and healing issues.  Various healing modalities, along with guidance, resources, and support will be offered. 

Some of the families who recently received care have the following to say about the care and services they received from their doctors and their Baby Loss Family Advisor. 
"I was strongly encouraged to give permission to be contacted by a Baby Loss Family Advisor by my OBGYN high risk doctor Stephanie Hedstrom.  Our baby girl passed on June 4th and Sherokee reached out to me over the next 2-3 days a few times.  

She offered encouraging guidance before our baby’s funeral services, which we really appreciated. She helped guide me and challenged me to think of things I hadn’t realized or thought I was open to.  During our first conversation I remember that she helped me reframe the time I had left with Kataleya.  She changed my way of thinking about things.  I was less afraid and more open to acting as my baby’s mama.

Having Sherokee as my Baby Loss Family Advisor provided me with a strong foundation of support. Someone who understood my pain and knew what I was feeling. We continued our conversations weeks after the death of my child.
It’s been almost 3 months now and I have continued to speak to Sherokee on multiple occasions. She always checks in with me to see how I am doing and if I need to talk, she is always available. I can’t express how grateful I am for this Embrace Circle program. The group session that my husband and I attended that Sherokee and Jeanne hosted was very successful. I was able to openly share my story, my feelings and get feedback from not only them, but another couple. Women and couples who have gone through such a traumatic experience need someone like Sherokee by their side early on.

The earlier the better. There are some things I wish I would have done differently the night of her passing, but my state of shock took over. Having someone like Sherokee there to guide would have been helpful for sure. I am immensely blessed to have crossed paths with Sherokee and the other folks she has introduced us to. She has helped me through moments of utter darkness. Although that is not gone, she has helped me get to another day."  Socorro