Abortion is a Pregnancy Loss
Shira Collings (she/they) is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Certified Miscarriage and Bereavement Doula, and Certified Jewish Lifecycle Ceremonialist. She specializes in providing neurodiversity affirming, LGBTQ+ affirming, and fat affirming eating disorder therapy. Shira is passionate about creating space for experiences that are often invisibilized to be seen, recognized, and understood.
Learn more here: https://reclaimingritual.com
Show Notes:
afab- assigned female at birth
“Pregnancy loss has not been recognized as loss in general… that’s a women’s health issue”
“The embodied experience of pregnancy is really downplayed”
“We don’t recognize it as the embodied all consuming experience that it can be so the end of that is not seen as a big deal.”
Pressure to be grateful for access
“I don’t think any form of pregnancy loss was brought up in my masters training”
What changes would you like to see? “More training a standard part of the curriculum”
“I internalized it as failure” (pregnancy loss)
“Did this happen because I don’t deserve to be a parent? Am I not going to be a good parent? Am I not a functional adult and this is the universe trying to send me that signal?”
The choice to be child-free
Reducing gatekeeping and making higher education accessible to more people.
“Be a safe person… be there to help people feel seen and heard…”
“Ritual gives an opportunity for members of a support system to hear and see and recognize what your internal experience is”
Ritual- “making something visible”
Having an embodied action is an important part of ritual
Mikveh ro mark transformation - https://www.mayyimhayyim.org/
Personal post loss experiences: grief, self-blame, rumination, anxiety, minimizing medical interactions
The Retrievals - podcast
TMFR including all abortion
Reach out to Shira for therapy
