Untold: Creating Space for Loss After Stillbirth

Play synopsis: When Faith Morgan comes to the hospital to deliver her baby, she knows he is stillborn, but does not know the full-extent of what it means to “give birth to death.” With the assistance of Dr. Audrey Armstrong and Nurse Paul George, Faith goes through the physical pain of childbirth and rides out her conflicted emotions while Dr. Armstrong and Nurse George relive their own stories of child loss. Together they come to a determination of how best to honor this baby.

Veteran Grief Dialogues actors (Left to Right) Gretchen Douma, Shane Regan, and Joanne Burger perform in this live performance.

Following the performance, Dr. Jillian Tullis will discuss the communication challenges from witnessing a baby’s death. Is it truly "the smallest yet most powerful thing we can do."

Jillian A. Tullis, PhD (Far right) is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of San Diego. Her teaching and research interests focus on health communication, specifically communication about dying and death in healthcare settings. Tullis’ scholarship used qualitative methods to study such topics as hospice team communication, tumor boards, spirituality, dying, death, quality of life, and a “good death.”

Warning: The play contains scenes of childbirth and may trigger feelings of depression and grief especially among those who have suffered miscarriage, still birth, failed IVF and unsuccessful adoption.

Untold is written by Grief Dialogues Founder and Chief Playwright Elizabeth Coplan.