Finding company & comfort

“We just started talking,” said Camille Seigle of the connection that evolved into a recent anthology, Maternal Hope: Stories of Unseen Struggles, Unexpected Resilience, and the Untold Ways Families Are Made. 

Seigle and Ali Mann Stevens were coworkers and close friends when, as they were starting to build their families six years ago, they faced different but deeply painful challenges. Seigle suffered severe postpartum anxiety and depression and struggled with her return to work; Stevens experienced the premature labor of her twins and the tragic loss of both. 

They connected over a notable similarity: the silence they felt around them. Though they felt all alone, they knew that many others were struggling to build their families while feeling alone, too. 

Their conversations turned into a question: How do we give light and hope, and the feeling that you’re not alone, to all these different stories? Seigle, who lives in Lincoln Park, explained that as their project coalesced into Maternal Hope, they didn’t want it to tell just their own two stories, but to include a diversity of authors and experiences. 

“We cultivated all of these contributing authors to share their stories, just to make you feel less alone in your experience,” Seigle explained. “Also, maybe you haven’t gone through this, but you have a family member or a friend who has, and you have no idea what to say, what to do. We put resources in the book for all of these different experiences. If a woman wrote about a stillbirth experience, she put resources that genuinely helped her during that time.” 

The response to Maternal Hope has been warm and affirming. The co-authors have hosted book events in New York and Chicago, and were featured on Zibby Owens’s podcast, Totally Booked with Zibby, and on Fox32 Chicago. 

But the most wonderful thing, according to Seigle, has been the reaction from readers: “I felt so seen,” and “it felt so nice to know I wasn’t alone.” 

Seigle recalled another kind of message she is glad to receive, which links to her work now as an executive and leadership coach. She described messages like, “‘I’ve never told anyone this, and I was finally able to share [it] with a friend or family member.’ I think a lot of people … keep it inside. You don’t say anything. And keeping that to yourself, it sits with your body.” As a coach, Seigle is a “big believer” in the importance of getting experiences and emotions unstuck, and she has seen firsthand what it’s like when her clients are able to release what they’ve been holding in. 

For Seigle, it goes back to a message of hope—not to discredit experiences or emotions, but to acknowledge them, and look ahead too. She compares it to enduring a Chicago winter, when you feel “we’re never going to be done with it,” and then you get “a beacon of hope” with an early day of warmer weather. 

“Sometimes, all you’re focusing on is how something is not working, and this is the hope of it can and it will.” Seigle said. “You’re in a moment in time and that sky will turn. That day will turn.” 

To learn more about Maternal Hope and its authors, visit mymaternalhope.com.