One of the many cruel realities of suffering a miscarriage or stillbirth is the fact that you're left with physical symptoms to remind you of the incredible loss you've endured. Whether that's heavy bleeding, or persistent morning sickness, or that fact that you've started lactating even when there's no baby to nurse, those symptoms can make your grief feel even heavier. And there's a real lack of cultural understanding, discussion, or systemic support for parents who are reeling from this sort of loss-not just emotionally, but also physically.
That's why we're applauding Earth Mama Organics, a brand known for creating postpartum essentials like nipple butter and perineal balm, for taking a step to support their customers who are experiencing the aftermath of stillbirth or miscarriage.
A grieving mother named Xana reached out to the brand after having success with one of their products following the loss of her daughter, Magnolia (Nola), who was born still at 36 weeks. "One of the many unanticipated aftershocks of grief following a stillbirth is lactation," the mother wrote in an Instagram post. "My midwife suggested No More Milk tea (among other things) to help suppress lactation. The act of making and drinking this tea was comforting and grounding."
But one aspect of drinking this tea broke the mom's heart. "The one downside was the messages included on the tea tags, which were so clearly not meant for women in my situation," she wrote.
So the mom wrote to the company with a request. After noticing that the tea bags contained tags printed with statements like, "1 new baby, 1,000 new emotions," the mom wondered if maybe these phrases would better suit customers who were looking to boost, rather than suppress, lactation.
"I can imagine that phrases like, 'May the latch be with you' would not sit well even with mothers who are hoping to suppress lactation for reasons other than child loss," the mother wrote. "So, my humble but sincere request is that you consider removing these messages from the tags of your No More Milk tea."
Days later, the company responded to express deep sympathy. "That pain is unimaginable and we are sorry our tea tags caused you more," Earth Mama Organics wrote. The company took swift, incredibly meaningful action and switched out the phrases on the No More Milk tea bag tags to better reflect what moms who are looking to suppress lactation might be working through-phrases include "be gentle with yourself" and "it's okay not to be okay."
What a powerful story-and this mama is so right. We as a society need to do a better job of supporting parents who are dealing with miscarriages and stillbirths. Kudos to this company for doing just that.