I grew up in a deeply unhealthy and dysfunctional household. From an early age, I remember saying to myself, “When I have kids, I will never…” Even as a child, I knew I wanted something different. I knew I wanted to be a mother.

As a child, fear [of ICE] lived quietly in the background of my life. It was present in ways that were easy to overlook from the outside but impossible to escape from within. It shaped how I paid attention to the world. It shaped how I understood safety.

Women who have endured complex trauma often pour themselves deeply into motherhood. Parenting becomes more than a role—it becomes a purpose, a place of safety, and sometimes a way to rewrite the past.

People don’t talk much about the sense of loss you feel when you are no longer your child's primary caregiver. Discovering a sense of self after so many years of focusing on someone else is not easy.

Pictures, videos, memory boxes—these are all that remain of my daughter Adaya, and sometimes, they hold her echo so vividly that they break me all over again.

Amanda Kranz will share how she has coped with the loss of her daughter, just three months after being born. 

“I still remember the four babies I lost AND I cherish the fact that I have two beautiful, healthy, happy children."