As someone who lost a son seventeen hours after being born, I feel plenty of empathy for Karen, whose daughter was determined to be stillborn in the womb two days before Karen gave birth.

Although six months elapsed after the death of Karen’s infant before producer Rob Zawatski recorded her monologue here, she’s still choked up as she speaks into the mic. She may be choked up, she says, sixty years later—as I still feel pain forty years later; one never gets over such losses. Along with her loss, Karen regrets that for a month and a half after her daughter’s death she was constantly surrounded by people concerned that she might do herself harm. She’s bothered that she had no time to grieve in private, something I found therapeutic—as did my wife—after our child passed away.

This is not an easy piece to hear, considering how we all tune into public radio for entertainment and/or information. On the other hand, not enough has been said and heard about this subject. Until we learn to understand the grief of a mother who has lost her child, how can we deal with such issues as marital discord and divorce, both inextricably related to the death of an infant whose birth is awaited with enormous longing and expectation?

Until we hear Karen’s story, how can we fully understand what it means to give birth to an infant who survives and grows into a healthy child?