Any PAL mom has heard the phrase “Rainbow Baby”. For those of you who don’t know, a rainbow baby is defined as “A baby born after the loss of a previous baby due to miscarriage, stillbirth, or death in infancy. They are referred to as rainbow babies because a rainbow typically follows a storm, giving us hope of what’s to come (definition from thebump.com).”

Some people don’t like the phrase “Rainbow Baby”. Stillmothers.com put why they don’t like the phrase quite nicely:

“Often you will hear the terms “Sunshine” to describe a child born before the baby(ies) who died, and “Rainbow” to describe a child born after the baby(ies) who died. This has led us to ask – does using these terms mean that the baby who died is a “Storm”? We’re just not okay with that!

We believe each baby, regardless of his or her place in a family, should be just who he or she is, without having a potentially upsetting title. So instead we’ll say: baby born after loss (or younger sibling), baby who died, and baby born before loss (or older sibling).

We believe that healing is possible, even if you never get your “rainbow after the storm”, or as we’d say, your child’s younger sibling.”

I can understand their logic and if that is the way you feel that is totally fine and understandable. My take on it is that every PAL mom needs to call their baby what speaks to them. If your baby is a “Rainbow Baby”, thats great! If your baby is “Little One” thats also great! I personally have no issue with the phrase, but it doesn’t speak to me so I think I’ll refer to my 3rd child as “Le Bump #3” until I know the gender 🙂

As a PAL mom, you call your baby whatever endears and connects them to you! “The Bump”, “Pumpkin”, “Boo”, “The Seed”, you name it!

❤ to all TTC PAL moms!