EP140: Six Losses, one foundation: Guest Catherine MacLennan on building the support she never dad

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Now into the show.

Catherine MacLennan has been through six pregnancy losses — three of them in the second trimester, all of them traumatic.

When she went looking for support, she found almost none.

So she built it herself: first the Pinks and Blues, a peer support community, and later the Vilomah Foundation, a UK charity offering free, ongoing support to anyone navigating pregnancy loss or pregnancy after loss.

In this conversation, we talk about what rarely gets named out loud: the trauma that doesn't get validated, the identity that has to be rebuilt from scratch, the partners grieving in silence because they didn't "physically" go through it, and the grandparents mourning a grandchild they never met.

We also get into Catherine's workplace training — what happens when a compassionate manager gets replaced by a tick-box HR process, and why the way an organisation responds to loss determines whether an employee comes back at all.

This is a conversation about grief without a timeline, about validation, and about what it actually looks like to build the support system that should have existed all along.

In This Episode

Catherine's story: six pregnancy losses and the search for support that wasn't there
Why she started the Pinks and Blues, and later the Vilomah Foundation
How Vilomah supports people through Zoom — free sessions, no limit, from loss through pregnancy after loss
The silence and shame around pregnancy loss, and why validation matters so much
Naming trauma: what it meant for Catherine to hear a therapist call her experience traumatic
Miscarriage awareness gaps — including that UK miscarriage is recognized up to 24 weeks
The identity shift after loss: redefining who you are when everything gets stripped back
Supporting partners: why their grief is valid even when they "didn't go through it physically"
The ripple effect on grandparents and extended family
Pregnancy loss in the workplace: compassionate management vs. tick-box HR
The UK's new pregnancy loss bereavement leave law, and what it does (and doesn't yet) cover
Why grief has no timeline — and what workplaces can do to make room for that

About Catherine MacLennan

Catherine MacLennan is the founder of the Vilomah Foundation, a UK-based pregnancy loss support and charity organization dedicated to walking alongside families through one of the most profound losses.

As a specialist coach, Catherine offers personalised support to individuals and couples navigating pregnancy loss and pregnancy after loss, and delivers workplace training on how organizations can support employees through pregnancy loss.

Connect with Catherine & the Vilomah Foundation

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-vilomah-foundation/

Instagram @thevilomahfoundation

TikTok @the.vilomah.found

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/share/1DQWzbthY4/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Website www.thevilomahfoundation.org.uk

Email [email protected]

A Note on This Episode

This episode discusses pregnancy loss, miscarriage, and trauma in detail. Please take care while listening, and know that support is available if this brings anything up for you.

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