Dana and Joe Kern, parents of Ethan Jack (with us in spirit), Eli Max and Taylor Stefana. Founders of Tiny Heartbeats.
Fern Lehmann, our fabulous nurse also dedicated to helping prevent stillbirth.
Fern Lehmann is a 42 year old wife and mother of four boys ranging in age from 24 to 1. She has her LPN license in Virginia and has training as an RN, but has not yet completed her boards for her RN license. Fern has 24 years of nursing experience in family medicine, gynocology, obstetrics, psychology, diabetes, and chronic pain. Fern became disabled due to fibromyalgia and associated depression in 1998. She has found fulfillment offering support and medical information on the internet to others with chronic health problems.
She and her husband decided to have another child in 2003 after some significant improvements in her medical condition. She had suffered a miscarriage between her two biological sons in her twenties, but never expected to experience three more losses in her endeavor to have another child. Her second miscarriage occured when the baby's heartbeat could not be found at 12 weeks. The ultrasound revealed that he had died at 9 weeks soon after her first normal ultrasound. She opted for a D&C even though it was difficult and painful emotionally to go through the procedure, she and her husband felt it would be the best way to get on with healing and trying to conceive another child. She went on to become pregnant two more times, but lost the babies between 6-8 weeks.
One of her doctors told her she would eventually have a healthy baby, but the question was how many losses she could endure emotionally before she couldn't cope any longer. The doctor didn't anticipate her determination. She took a year off from trying to grieve and then became pregnant again. She was blessed that this pregnancy was healthy and she delivered a beautiful, dark haired son with brown eyes and a cleft chin. He was 7 pounds and 18 and a half inches long. Her family named him Benjamin Wayne. He has brought much healing and joy into the lives of her immediate and extended family.
After all of her experiences, Fern wants to dedicate her time and energy to helping other mothers who have had lost children. She enjoys counseling them both medically and emotionally. She plans to return to school when Ben is a bit older to study grief counseling.
She is available to all recipients of Tiny Heartbeats to offer support both emotionally as a parent who has experienced loss and medically as a nurse who has experience in OB/GYN.
