Nikki Berry is the Assistant Nursing Professor at Saint Martin’s University in Washington State. Her research in perinatal loss, grief, and bereavement focuses on decreasing the emotional trauma parents experience in the wake of a life-limiting fetal diagnosis. When we stumbled across her research articles, we just knew we had to interview her for the podcast!
In this episode, we were excited to sit down with Nikki Berry, a former OR nurse turned nurse educator and researcher, with a focus on the grief and trauma of perinatal loss.
The focus of her research came about as a result of her own tragic life experiences. Nikki’s niece, Ayden, was born with a life limiting condition called anencephaly.
Nikki reading her favorite book, The Day Jimmy’s Boa Ate The Wash, to her niece Ayden shortly after her birth.
She watched as her family went through the different stages surrounding the loss of her niece, and tried to offer assistance in developing a plan for the birth. The more research she did to find support, the more she realized the resources for pregnancy and infant loss were severely lacking. She has since turned her grief into purpose and has published many articles, as well as formed a non-profit @ProjectPoppyseed, aimed at providing support resources for loss families. This came about organically and as a result of her personal experiences, including her research work with loss families she interviewed for her dissertation. While completing her research, she met many families who experienced perinatal loss and was struck by the silence and loneliness families dealt with throughout their grief journey. One of the tenets of Project Poppyseed is breaking the silence surrounding perinatal loss. Another is to conduct research and provide tools for providers to utilize.
Nikki is a beam of light in the community and we are so thankful for the work she is doing. Nikki is someone who “gets it”. It was honestly hard to follow up with commentary because she summed things up so beautifully! Thank you Nikki, you are an amazing human!
If you would like to be a participant or view current research please visit https://projectpoppyseed.org/
Thank you so much for sharing your expertise with us Dr. Berry! You’re going to change the Perinatal Loss Community in so many ways.
If you’re a healthcare provider and want to learn more about the toolkits mentioned in this podcast, you can go here on Project Poppyseed’s website.
If you’re a parent navigating grief after the loss of your baby, Nikki has wonderful resources on her website for you here!
The Blindsided - NJ PA Miscarriage Stillbirth NICU Infant Loss Support 