By Sheldon Spackman

United by loss

Sisterhood formed through rainbow babies

Jun 28, 2019 | 7:00 AM

A new sisterhood of sorts has formed following a photo shoot this spring that brought together local women who have miscarried, but are now expecting a ‘Rainbow Baby.’

Local newborn photographer Paige Koster says the photo shoot involved seven local women and took place on April 13 after she received a request to take maternity and newborn photos for one woman.

Koster, however, says the woman wanted to do something a little bit different.

“We chatted a bit and came up with this idea of doing the Rainbow Baby shoot which has been done and seen before, but what has failed to have been done before is actually digging a little bit deeper to hear each mom’s story,” explains Koster. “To hear how different each mom’s story was, but then at the same time how much the same it was to so many other women around who unfortunately are faced with keeping it quiet, just because it makes other people uncomfortable.”

Koster says the idea was to try and express all those feelings and bring to light what is actually happening and show the mothers that they’re not alone.

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“I believe it’s one in four that actually experience a loss and to show them that they can talk about it and does deserve to be talked about, because they are babies too,” says Koster. “That was kind of the idea behind it all.”

Koster says the moms involved were happy to be a part of it.

“Each one of the moms had such emotional stories to tell afterwards and during the session they were all great and close together,” recalls Koster. “We’re still chatting and everybody is starting to have their babies and they’re all doing so well and are keeping in contact. I actually had the honour of photographing many of those that have already been born and we’re hoping that once they’re all a little bit older, we’re going to do some photos of them all together again.”

Koster hopes the women involved know that everything they and their child have gone through, are opening the doors for other people to talk about their loss as well.

“To be able to find kind of a sanctuary within the women themselves and kind of a community that can support each other, the whole village idea,” adds Koster. “I think it’s overlooked a lot how much a woman can go through during their child bearing and during a loss and I think that sometimes moms are overlooked a little, so it’s nice to kind of bring light to that and to see what they’re fighting for.”