This Mom-to-Be's Cute Rainbow T-Shirt Spreads Touching Message of Hope
Autumn Tolliver Safley is 30 weeks pregnant. This would undoubtedly be an exciting time in any woman's life, but for Safley, it's especially meaningful: She and her husband lost two pregnancies to back-to-back miscarriages in late 2015 and early 2016, and this is their first pregnancy since.
In celebration of the healthy baby on the way, Safley, a 30-year-old occupational therapist, wore a special maternity T-shirt while shopping at her local craft store two weeks ago, TODAY reports. While browsing the aisles at the Hobby Lobby in North Little Rock, Arkansas, a fellow shopper caught Safley's attention and appeared visibly moved by the simple shirt. The woman had "tears in her eyes," Safley said, and seemed especially touched by the sentiment written across her belly: "You're looking at a rainbow!"
The rainbow symbolism is meant to honor a baby born after a miscarriage, still birth or infant loss - a child known as a "rainbow baby." The woman, who Safley now knows as Courtney Mixon, approached her and said, "I know what your shirt means … My husband and I lost our baby last year, and we've been trying to conceive."
The two women ended up standing in the store and chatting for quite some time, sharing their miscarriage stories with one another. Inspired by Safley's shirt, Mixon asked to take a picture of it.
Later that day, Mixon posted the photo on Facebook with an emotional message about what it meant to her to have met another woman who had also struggled with having a miscarriage and her joy at her rainbow baby. Little did she know that her post would soon start an important - and viral - conversation about the issue of pregnancy loss.
Mixon left the store only knowing Safley's first name, but when her post went viral, Safley eventually caught wind of it. The two women became friends on Facebook, and Mixon quickly tagged Safley in the photo. Mixon told TODAY that she's still amazed by how popular the post has become (as of this afternoon, it's been shared more than 34,000 times), and the reactions to her words have helped her realize she's not alone.
Today, Mixon and her husband are still trying to conceive, while Safley's son (who is to be named James Addison Safley III after her husband) is due in December. Even at the 30-week mark, however, Safley still feels nervous about her pregnancy from time to time.
"Naturally, [these feelings are] going to happen, but I feel more confident as every day passes," she told TODAY, echoing the sentiment of many other women who have also conceived rainbow babies after pregnancy losses. "The more I'm feeling [the baby moving], I feel more and more confident that this is going to be the perfect little pregnancy, and I am going to get my son here in a few weeks."
[h/t TODAY]
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