Ghostbelly

Ghostbelly is Elizabeth Heineman’s personal account of a home birth that goes tragically wrong—ending in a stillbirth—and the harrowing process of grief and questioning that follows. It’s also Heineman’s unexpected tale of the loss of a newborn: before burial, she brings the baby home for overnight stays.

Does this sound unsettling? Of course. We’re not supposed to hold and caress dead bodies. But then again, babies aren’t supposed to die.

In this courageous and deeply intimate memoir, Heineman examines the home-birth and maternal health-care industry, the isolation of midwives, and the scripting of her own grief. With no resolution to sadness, Heineman and her partner learn to live in a new world: a world in which they face each day with the understanding of the fragility of the present.

• Holding Space: On Loving, Dying, and Letting Go
• Companioning at a Time of Perinatal Loss: A Guide for Nurses, Physicians, Social Workers, Chaplains and Other Bedside Caregivers
• Birth, Breath, and Death: Meditations on Motherhood, Chaplaincy, and Life as a Doula
• Walking the Labyrinth of My Heart: A Journey of Pregnancy, Grief and Newborn Death
• The Fourth Trimester: A Postpartum Guide to Healing Your Body, Balancing Your Emotions, and Restoring Your Vitality
• The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding: Completely Revised and Updated 8th Edition
• Breastfeeding Made Simple: Seven Natural Laws for Nursing Mothers
• The Doula Book: How a Trained Labor Companion Can Help You Have a Shorter, Easier, and Healthier Birth (A Merloyd Lawrence Book)
• Birth Partner 5th Edition: A Complete Guide to Childbirth for Dads, Partners, Doulas, and All Other Labor Companions
• Empty Cradle, Broken Heart: Surviving the Death of Your Baby