S6 E7 | Pregnancy & Advocacy after NICU Roundtable

Season 6

Feb 22

This week, we are excited to release another roundtable episode! As we continue our theme of growing our families after NICU, we invited Ebony and Carrita back on the podcast as they are both expecting after loss and NICU stays.

Ebony and Carrita share their personal family building journeys, how they have savored each moment of their pregnancies, and words of encouragement they would offer other NICU mamas who find themselves pregnant after the NICU! They also share vulnerably about how they have advocated for perinatal and postpartum care as Black mothers and women.

Our hope is that if growing your family via pregnancy is something you desire, that you would feel empowered and equipped on your journey as you listen to this episode!

Ebony Ford is the CEO & founder of Miracle Mamas, a diversity and inclusion firm that provides consultations to organizations looking to aid in the maternal health crisis and provides resources to families of the premature, medically fragile, and disabled to ensure that their physical, socio-economic and emotional needs are met. She is a maternal health advocate, a National Ambassador for March of Dimes, a patient family partner for the Preeclampsia Foundation and serves on the Maryland Maternal Mortality Review Board. She survived a near-miss related to the birth of her first child caused by severe sudden-onset preeclampsia and Class I HELLP Syndrome resulting in pulmonary edema, multi-organ failure and requiring an emergency c-section, intubation, dialysis and admission to the ICU at just 26 weeks pregnant. Ebony now shares her story to raise awareness about prematurity, preeclampsia, HELLP Syndrome, birth trauma, the maternal health crisis as well as the need for self-advocacy, doula or midwifery services for those most affected by the maternal health crisis.

Connect with Ebony: Instagram

Caritta is a young woman who exudes strength and grace. She can also be described as a true victor and an example to many women. Carita is an angel mom time three. After experiencing her first two losses, she was led by God to begin sharing her story publicly. Her motivation for sharing this journey was to remind other women that they were not alone. She also wanted to make it known that child loss and infertility did not only happen to certain groups of women. Anyone could find themselves in this seat. Most recently Carrita has created Love Always, Carrita. This was created to shine a light on the healing abilities of writing. Carrita began writing and published her first in 2019. Carrita found writing to be therapeutic and healing for her and began encouraging others to write daily as well, even if it is a simple journal entry. Writing heals. Carrita is a published author, NICU advocate, and inspirational speaker and overall supporter of women.

Connect with Carrita: Instagram

To listen, you can find us on iTunes , Spotify, Google or by clicking the link below!