What Family Voices is
Family Voices publishes first-person essays by HIE parents, caregivers, and family members. It’s here because a research digest can’t capture what a 3 a.m. feed, a sudden cry, or a first unaided step feels like from inside a family. That experience matters on its own terms. It doesn’t need to be dressed up as data to count.
What Family Voices isn’t
Please read this before submitting: Family Voices essays are testimony, not evidence. Nothing in this section is presented as a clinical finding, a representative sample, or medical guidance, and we will never edit an essay to suggest a cause or a diagnosis it doesn’t claim. If your essay describes something you believe is medically significant, our editors may ask whether you’re comfortable with a short editor’s note separating your experience from a clinical claim. That note is there to protect both you and the reader, and it’s never used to contradict or play down what you wrote.
What we’re looking for
- First-person accounts from parents, caregivers, or family members touched by a neonatal HIE diagnosis or a NICU stay, at any stage: pregnancy and birth, the NICU, the first weeks home, ongoing therapy and milestones, or looking back years later.
- Around 800–1,500 words, though we’re happy to consider shorter pieces.
- Your own voice and your own story. We won’t rewrite what you tell us; we’ll only edit for clarity and length, and you’ll approve the final text.
How to submit
- Email your essay, or a short pitch about what you’d like to write, to editorial@thesilence.us.
- Tell us how you’d like to be credited: full name, first name only, or a pseudonym. All are welcome.
- You can review and approve the final edited text before publication, and you can withdraw your piece at any time before it goes live. See Copyright & Permissions for the publishing rights we ask for.