What is a rainbow baby?

It recently occurred to me that not everyone is familiar with the term rainbow baby. A rainbow baby is a term for a healthy baby born after losing a baby due to miscarriage, still birth, infant loss or neonatal death. For many of you that know me personally, you may or may not know that my daughter Blaire Dana is our rainbow baby.

So when I sat down and decided that I wanted to embark upon this new business venture of opening up a small online baby boutique, the name came quickly as it represents not only my story but the story of so many other women and families. I'm just going to be completely honest here and admit that I don't really have a clue what I'm doing. This is all completely new to me and I'm learning as I go. One thing I know for sure is that alongside selling some cute baby items I want to celebrate other people's stories through infertility, miscarriage and loss in the hopes of decreasing the stigma around same as well as shining light on the fact that if you're reading this and have a similar story; whether you're on the other side or smack dab in the middle of feeling like you're not sure how to make it through the struggle, I just want you to know that you're not alone. 

Again, in full transparency I'm not exactly sure how this is all going to transpire just quite yet but I have lots of ideas and hopes of being able to utilize this platform to connect with other women and families who have had similar struggles. Whether infertility, miscarriage or anything alike hasn't personally affected you, I guarantee it has affected a friend, sister, colleague, daughter, cousin or someone that you know. And if you're one of the lucky ones that struggles to pinpoint who that friend might be, please understand that just because you don't know about it doesn't mean that it hasn't affected many people around you. But for some reason, it's something that still even in 2021, doesn't seem to be socially accepted as largely shared or talked about. I'd like to clarify that I feel strongly that it is completely up to the individual whether they want to share their loss with close friends/family, widely on social media or perhaps no one at all. And of course there is nothing wrong any one of these options if it's the authentic wish of those experiencing the loss. I just want women and families to know that it's okay to talk about it, even if it makes other people uncomfortable, even if we've been socialized to think that that's not the case. I would love to share resources with those reading this, ideas of things to say or not to say to someone who has experienced miscarriage, infant loss or struggling with infertility. And again, ultimately I just hope that I'm blessed enough to hear people's stories and create a community where we can find connection through hard things that we've been through or are going through in this arena we call life. 

I want to celebrate mama's who finally get the hold their rainbow baby in their arms because there is simply nothing in this entire world as sweet as that. So again, full disclosure, as I'm not 100% sure exactly what this will look like but a portion of the annual proceeds of Rainbow baby boutique's sales will be gifted to a beautiful mama and her rainbow baby. Stay tuned for more. 

Thanks for listening, 

Kendell