It's about supporting families whose lives have changed forever

Power Station

When Liz O’Donnell, a first-grade teacher in Washington DC, arrived at the hospital to give birth she could not have imagined that she would leave without baby Aaliyah or the resources she needed to recover. She had experienced a change in fetal movements a few weeks before and did not realize, after an easy pregnancy, the urgency of her situation. The nurse could not detect a fetal heartbeat and Liz delivered her daughter, a stillbirth. In this episode of Power Station, Liz shares how she founded Aaliyah in Action to help families impacted by perinatal and neonatal loss grieve and to advocate for the recognition of stillbirths as a public health imperative. She partners with over 40 hospitals to provide care packages to women at their most vulnerable time. And when her employer, the DC Public School system, denied her paid leave she pushed back and won the inclusion of stillbirth in the District’s Paid Family Leave and Family Bereavement Acts. Liz is deepening her engagement in the public health sphere, exploring inequitable systems in women’s maternal health care. Aaliyah remains Liz’s powerful North Star.