In conversation with Aspen Baker, Founder and Director of Exhale
Co-Sponsored by Exhale

Guided by the narrative of her mother's tragic loss of a son years earlier, Mira Ptacin confronts an unexpected pregnancy with a child who has no chance of survival outside the womb. Mira was given three options: terminate her pregnancy, induce early delivery, or wait and inevitably miscarry. Her story is woven together with the story of Mira's mother, who immigrated from Poland (also at the age of twenty-eight) and adopted a son, Julian. Julian would die tragically, bringing her a similar, unimaginable grief. 

A memoir about loss and self-preservation, grief and recovery, and mothers and daughters, Poor Your Soul is a beautiful examination of free will, love, and the fierce bonds of family.

Mira Ptacin is a creative nonfiction and children's book author and New York Times bestselling ghostwriter whose work has appeared in Guernica, NPR, New York Magazine, The National Book Foundation, The Morning News, and more.

Exhale is the nation’s premiere organization addressing the emotional health and wellbeing of women and men after abortion. Founded in 2000 by and for women who have had abortions, we provide and promote emotional support across a dynamic landscape of private and public spaces, online and offline.