Desirée van Nieuwenhoven holding the Dutch edition of her book Stillborn

STILLBORN

A book about baby loss, grief, love and finding life again

Stillborn is my personal story of miscarriage, two stillbirths and the years that followed.

It is not a book about forgetting your child.

It is about learning how to live with love, grief and everything that is still ahead.

WHO THIS BOOK IS FOR

For the mother who knows what empty arms feel like

Maybe your loss happened recently.

Maybe it has been years.

Maybe you experienced a miscarriage, a stillbirth or the death of your baby shortly after birth.

This book is also for the partner, friend, sister, colleague or professional who wants to understand what baby loss can do to a person and a family.

You do not have to have lived my story to recognise something in it.

WHAT YOU’LL FIND INSIDE

This book is not only about loss

It is about what happens afterwards.

The questions.

The guilt.

The anger.

The strange moment when you laugh again and wonder whether you are allowed to.

The way your child remains part of your family, even when other people stop mentioning their name.

And the slow discovery that loving your child and loving your life do not cancel each other out.

I wrote the book I could not find when I needed it myself.

Not a manual.

Not a grief method.

Just one mother’s honest story from the inside.

Front cover of Stillborn by Desirée van Nieuwenhoven

Read it or listen in the way that suits you

Paperback

Buy the paperback

The English paperback edition of Stillborn is available through Amazon.

You order the printed book directly there. I do not keep English paperback copies in stock myself.

E-book

Read Stillborn on Kindle

Start reading straight away

Stillborn is also available as a Kindle edition on Amazon.

Read it on your Kindle, phone or tablet, wherever you are.

AUDIOBOOK

My story, in my own voice

I narrated the English audiobook myself.

Not a voice actor. My voice. My words. My story.

Listen while walking, driving or simply sitting somewhere quiet when reading feels like too much.

Why I wrote a book about stillbirth and baby loss

After losing Jasmijn, Tom and Tim, I searched for words that reflected what I was living through.

I found books about grief.

But I missed something.

A story that made room for the love as well as the pain.

For the guilt and the laughter.

For continuing to be a mother when your child is no longer physically here.

And for the possibility that life might one day feel good again without that meaning your child matters any less.

So I wrote it myself.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I wrote from experience, not from a textbook

I lost Jasmijn through miscarriage. Tom and Tim were stillborn.

Stillborn grew from those experiences and from everything I learned in the years afterwards.

Today I write, speak and host conversations about baby and child loss, because silence can make an already difficult experience even lonelier.

My work is about making room for both: the child you miss and the life that is still yours to live.

WHAT READERS SAY

Words from people who have read Stillborn

“A moving book that brings light into the darkness and makes you think about loss, love and hope.”

Marrit

“I wish this book had existed 28 years ago. It describes so much with such tenderness and recognition.”

Diana, mother of Jesper*

“Intense, touching, honest and powerful. I hope this book helps more people talk about baby loss.”

Mariëtte

You do not have to have experienced baby loss yourself

Sometimes the hardest part for friends, family and colleagues is simply not knowing what to say or do.

Stillborn gives a glimpse into what baby loss can mean long after the hospital, funeral or first weeks have passed.

It can help you understand why a child is still mentioned years later.

Why certain dates matter.

Why happiness and grief can sit beside each other.

And why silence is not always the kindest response.

Your child can remain part of your life. And there can still be more life ahead

You do not have to choose between remembering and moving forward.

You can carry both.

That is the heart of Stillborn.

About Desirée
  • Baby & child loss guide
    Author · Speaker · Podcast host
  • Mother of Jasmijn 💛, Tom 💙 and Tim 💙
  • Founder of Stichting Everlasting Parenthood
    (Everlasting Parenthood Foundation)
  • Initiator of Baby Loss Day
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Photography: Mariël Kolmschot Fotografie

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