Rechelle Vermaak, SBD

Certified Birth & Bereavement Doula® serving Stellenbosch, South Africa

SBD Doulas® are accessible to you through our open group or through our CONNECT app.

Rechélle has enrolled with the Stillbirthday Doula course as to compliment the bereavement work at the online support community for miscarriage and stillbirth in South Africa, called MyMiskraam.

It is a rather sad truth that South Africa has no official support group for parents that has been through this live changing event and that there is hardly any support in the local or private hospitals across the country. After being through a miscarriage and stillbirth herself, and realizing that it is such a lonely journey, she wanted to share the information learnt with other heart broken parents.

In 2012 Rechélle and Luzanne Nabel launched the Afrikaans website MyMiskraam and hosted the first formal Stillbirth and Miscarriage ceremony, in conjunction with other industry roll players at Legacy Parks outside of Stellenbosch.

The purpose of the website is to show other parents that they are not alone going through this trauma, and to equip them with tools to teach them what to expect, how to deal with the loss and feelings, what the law requires, and where to find local help in South Africa. This website is not a medical site, and it does not promise you answers on why it happened. But it does acknowledge that every one’s hurt is legitimate, no matter what stage of the pregnancy you lost your baby. Every parent’s feelings are real and deserves the respect from others. There is no right or wrong way – it is your way.

Part of the online support community is their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MyMiskraam that helps stimulate conversations between members.

Discover what the SBD credentialed doula has achieved.

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BIRTH & BEREAVEMENT QUOTES

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She was a genius of sadness, immersing herself in it, separating its numerous strands, appreciating its subtle nuances. She was a prism through which sadness could be divided into its infinite spectrum.

— Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything Is Illuminated

No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.

— C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed

I am strong.

— January, founder of Birth Without Fear

When someone you love dies, and you’re not expecting it, you don’t lose her all at once; you lose her in pieces over a long time—the way the mail stops coming, and her scent fades from the pillows and even from the clothes in her closet and drawers. Gradually, you accumulate the parts of her that are gone. Just when the day comes—when there’s a particular missing part that overwhelms you with the feeling that she’s gone, forever—there comes another day, and another specifically missing part.

— John Irving, A Prayer for Owen Meany

They say time heals all wounds, but that presumes the source of the grief is finite.

— Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Prince

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BECOME A DOULA!

Enroll now in the Birth & Bereavement Doula® program!

We onboard enrolled students into the program by email invitation.

After tuition, you can email heidi.faith@stillbirthday.com directly to expedite this step. Alternatively, if you prefer fb communications, you can join us in Admissions.