A Story of Grief and Growth with NICU Nurse, Jade Barrera

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Do you believe in divine intervention? After waking early one morning with Jade on my mind, I couldn't help but feel once again that there’s something greater at work here.

Jade Barrera is a wife, a mother, and a NICU nurse. Having worked with her for many years, I’ve had the privilege of watching Jade grow from a novice nurse to a confident leader as charge nurse. As any nurse will tell you, we become a close-knit family, deeply familiar with one another's struggles and triumphs. We celebrated with Jade when she shared her pregnancy news, and we mourned with her when she lost her son, Theo, at just 19 weeks.

This is Jade's story—one of love, loss, and healing. It spans a full range of emotions, from grief and anger to joy and inspiration. I know it wasn’t easy for Jade to share her story, and I deeply admire her courage in doing so. I hope that, through her journey, we can find both insight into grief and inspiration for our own healing paths.

A quick postscript: After we recorded, Jade realized she hadn’t mentioned something important. After delivering Theo, she experienced lactogenesis—essentially, her body began producing colostrum. This typically happens around 20 weeks of pregnancy, and Jade delivered Theo at 19 weeks. In her words, “Emotionally, it felt like someone kicked me while I was down. I was devastated as it was, and it was amplified by the pain of my body doing something right. I was so upset that my body couldn't carry a baby to viability, but all of sudden wanted to be good at making milk when there was no baby to feed.”  I know that by Jade sharing her experiences and her deep emotions, we can view loss through a more compassionate lens. 

After such a heavy conversion, Jade and I owed it to ourselves to have five minutes of fun. In the five-minute snippet: it’s a new game called five words, five seconds each and guess what? No one’s counting. For Jade's bio, visit my website (link below).

Pregnancy After Loss Support

Jade's bookstore

Jade's email: [e-mail]

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