Connecticut mom turns grief from stillbirth into advocacy: ‘To keep his memory alive’

CT Post – Sunday, May 11, 2025
By Cris Villalonga-Vivoni

Megan Morello could tell her son, Brayden, was going to be a mischievous little boy even before he was born. A first-time mom, Morello said Brayden was a “mover and groover” in her womb, often grabbing her attention with little jabs and kicks. It quickly earned him the nickname “Bamm Bamm” from the The Flintstones cartoon.

It all came to a halt, however, when her doctors told her they couldn’t find his heartbeat during a regular checkup. She was 36 weeks into her pregnancy — close to her due date — so doctors decided to induce her labor shortly after learning the news.

Her son was stillborn and his passing came as an absolute shock, but Morello said if she had known how to track all his jabs and kicks, she might have caught that something was wrong earlier in her pregnancy. She has since started to educate other mothers about the importance of kick counting and fetal movement as an ambassador for Count the Kicks, a free tracking program for expecting parents, to reduce the chances of stillbirth.

“Hopefully, other women and other families can hear my story, and then they have the courage to speak up and talk about [stillbirth], because it’s happening more than you would think,” she said.

An average of 21,209 babies are still born every year in the U.S., disproportionately impacting communities of color, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Connecticut, an average of 158 babies a year are stillborn.

Available in more than 20 languages, the free app works by helping a parent track how long it takes for their baby to move 10 times and rate the strength of each movement. After a few sessions, the app averages the times and monitors for changes or abnormalities.

More than 700,000 parents across the U.S. and 140 countries have signed up to use the app they created since its launch. It has been successful over the years. In Iowa, for example, Isburg said the Count the Kicks program helped reduce the state’s stillbirth rate by 32% from 2008 to 2018.

“Every baby and every pregnancy is different. It might take my baby 10 minutes to move 10 times, but it might take your baby 20 or 30 minutes. Just knowing what’s normal for your baby is the key,” she said. “By doing that every day … if that normal ever changes, you notice that it’s taking longer to reach 10 movements, or that your baby’s kicks aren’t as strong, that’s a sign that you need to call your provider.”

Morello of Greenwich said she was naive to the medical world during her first pregnancy in 2020. She’d follow her doctor’s advice and suggestions without question, hoping they’d guide her to the best possible outcome after being diagnosed with gestational diabetes.

She stopped by her obstetrician at least twice weekly for testing and checkups to ensure she and Brayden were healthy. Around 36 weeks, Morello said she felt a large kick that turned into abnormal rapid kicking while at a family party a few days before her next appointment. She checked in with the weekend staff at the obstetrician’s office, who said that she was most likely fine and the baby was losing room in her womb.

After those major kicks, Morello said she started to feel sick but thought she felt movement. She said they had three staff members confirm Brayden had no heartbeat before breaking the news to her with tears in their eyes. The nurses did their best to comfort Morello, as it was during the height of COVID-19 and regulations wouldn’t allow her husband to be there while doctors induced labor.

“Women have been giving birth for thousands of years and no one has been able to figure out why this has happened? Or a better way for me to do this? Because I can’t think of a worse thing than having to give birth to a deceased baby,” she said. “I had to go through all that. I had to go through the pushing, everything, and then there’s no rainbow at the end. There’s no pot of gold. You just end up with nothing.”

Throughout the checkup and labor, Morello said the doctors asked her if she noticed any differences in Brayden’s movement or if she was “kick counting.” Before that moment, she said no one had ever mentioned the importance of monitoring fetal movement and kicks or even how to do it.

Brayden’s autopsy revealed that he had died when the umbilical cord accidentally wrapped around his neck several times. Morello said the big jabs weren’t actual kicks, but rather Brayden “floating” in her uterus. Since she didn’t know what his normal kick was, she wasn’t sure if something was truly wrong or abnormal.

Morello said she took some time to learn about stillbirth by connecting with other moms who’ve experienced it and fetal movement through the Count the Kicks program. She ultimately became the state’s first — and so far only — program ambassador, spreading the word about the free tracking tool.

She also relied on the Count the Kicks app when she was pregnant with her son, Beau, in 2023. He was more active at night, so Morello said she’d sit, keeping track of his little jabs. She said the daily routine helped her build a bond with him after saying she spent the first two trimesters “detached” from the pregnancy.

“I would start the process and I would just use that as my time to start talking, getting to know him and making this connection,” she said. “And it really did make me feel empowered of knowing what my normal was. I knew that if anything changed, I know I’m going to speak up and I have the data to prove it.”

Beau turns two in September, and Morello said adjusting to being a first-time mom was initially hard as it reminded her of all the missed opportunities with Brayden. Celebrations like Mother’s Day are bittersweet, she said, wanting to celebrate being a mom while also envisioning what the day could have been like if both her boys were there.

Although she still has moments of mourning Brayden and their future together, Morello said she finds a lot of joy spending time with Beau and in her advocacy work.

“At the end of the day, that’s what I do this work for. Count the Kicks is to keep his memory alive,” Morello said.

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