Journey of a Lifetime

Mission and Vision

Journey of a Lifetime is a ministry of the Atlanta Morning Center whose mission is to offer parents who have received an adverse prenatal diagnosis the care of compassionate & trauma informed nurses, who provide at no cost prenatal through postnatal support, in the love of Jesus Christ, through prayers and financial support from the local church. This support offered to these parents includes medical advocacy, prenatal diagnosis education, grief and loss support, trauma informed care, pastoral care, postnatal NICU support, and liaison with medical specialists. 

Journey of a Lifetime celebrates the life of a child no matter the limitations of that life, or the length of the infant’s days, and seeks to work alongside the family to carry the infant to a life affirming birth outcome up to 37 weeks or beyond. We seek to give the parent permission to parent, even when the medical community insists parents terminate the pregnancy. 

What is Palliative Care?

Palliative Care is simply concurrent care. It is medically treating the person as you would any other person, while focusing on quality of life in lieu of a potentially shorter lifespan. Palliative care encourages shared decision making through communication, an environment that encourages parents to process their emotions and discuss their values, fosters hope, builds trust, assists with care coordination, validates parent’s concerns, facilitates communication with empathy and maintaining the parent’s voice, provides psychosocial assessment and support, and symptom management.

“Through the Journey with a potentially life-limiting fetal diagnosis in pregnancy, a perinatal palliative team can provide the encouragement families need to make decisions based on their faith, values, and experiences…to create a safe, compassionate, and caring environment for parents to process a number of intense emotions and discuss their values. Although parents must confront uncertainty and complex decision making for both the mother and baby, perinatal palliative teams support parents to express their goals as well as find meaning and hope.”(Marc-Aurele)

Collaborations

Journey of a Lifetime collaborates with many organizations to offer holistic support to the family journeying through a life limiting prenatal diagnosis.  A few are listed below:

• Be Not Afraid – Providing the model of care that Journey of a Lifetime was built on and offering training to organizations who want to provide Patient Care Coordinators to families receiving a life limiting diagnosis.
• Patti’s Place: Vital Pediatrics for Complex Kids – Dr. Patti Shearer is a developmental pediatrician in the Atlanta region serving medically fragile kids with the unique and specialized care they need. 
• Her Plan – Pregnancy and Life Assistance Network – providing comprehensive care for pregnant and parenting patients.
• Pediatric Hospice and Palliative Care of Georgia – Collaboration with Lanise Shortell RN, CHPPN providing hospice and palliative care in the Atlanta region, a certified grief recovery specialist and certified in traumatic grief education.

Infant Loss and Grief Support

Loss begins at the moment of receiving an adverse prenatal or life limiting diagnosis. It is critical that families be allowed to walk in their grief at their pace. Journey of a Lifetime aids parents in this journey with Christ centered love, experienced nurses in prenatal and postnatal loss and grief, and collaborating with Christian counselors. 

Research and Trauma Informed Care

Following the unique model of care developed by Be Not Afraid, Journey of a Lifetime provides trauma informed care. Trauma – is defined as “an injury to living tissue caused by an extrinsic agent and/or a disordered psychic or behavioral state resulting from severe mental or emotional stress or physical injury.” (Merriam Webster Dictionary) Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric disorder that may occur in people who have witnessed or experienced a traumatic event, series of events, or set of circumstances. An individual may experience this as emotionally or physically harmful…and may affect mental, physical, social, and/or spiritual well being.” (www.psychiatry.org). 

Prenatal diagnosis of a congenital anomaly can have significant emotional and psychological consequences for parents of affected babies, with many experiencing shock, sadness, anger, fear, guilt, and grief. After diagnosis, a significant proportion of parents report levels of anxiety and depression warranting clinical intervention.

Trauma Informed Care seeks to provide connection, safety, and agency for the parents!

Additional Services:

• Birth Plan Development
• Prenatal Diagnosis & NICU Education
• NICU Support
• Bereavement Support

Talk to our Manager of Palliative Care Coordination.

“So God created man in His image, in the image of God He created him.” – Genesis 1:27