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Takeaways

• Samantha shares how her first pregnancy ended in an early miscarriage, and how that grief shaped every pregnancy that followed.
• At 25 weeks pregnant with twins, Samantha lost one daughter, Cadence, while continuing to carry her surviving twin, Lexi, all the way to delivery.
• After a four week NICU stay and years of healing, Samantha went back to school to become a NICU nurse so other parents never feel alone.

Summary of the episode

Welcome to episode one of Life in the NICU Unfiltered. Host Samantha Huber opens the show with the story that started it all, her own journey through miscarriage, a high-risk twin pregnancy, the loss of one daughter, and a NICU stay with the other. This episode is the foundation for everything the podcast stands for.

Samantha walks through her first pregnancy, which ended in an early miscarriage at 12 weeks, and the isolation she felt navigating that loss without anyone in her life who had gone through the same thing. Three months later, she became pregnant again, this time with twins. What started as double the excitement turned into a high-risk pregnancy when a 20-week ultrasound revealed one twin was growing at half the rate of the other. Complete bed rest, weekly home health visits, and constant monitoring became her new normal.

At 25 weeks, Samantha learned her daughter Cadence had passed while her twin sister, Lexi, continued to grow. She carried both the grief and the pregnancy at once, delivered by emergency C-section, and spent the following weeks splitting her time between holding her surviving daughter in the NICU and planning a funeral for the daughter she lost.

The episode closes with Lexi's NICU discharge, the fear and confidence that came with bringing a preemie home, and Samantha's decision years later to become a NICU nurse so she could sit with other parents in the moments she once faced alone.

Resources: Visit NICU Necessities for more NICU tips and resources

This podcast is for education and support and is not a substitute for medical advice. Always talk with your baby’s care team about your family’s needs.