Kristina Tsiros got married in January 2011 and found out she was pregnant in November of that year.
“My husband and I didn’t want to have kids right away but it happened, it was a surprise,” said 26-year-old Tsiros.
Around the same time she learned she was pregnant, Tsiros’ next-door neighbor . Scharbarth was less than a week later. About eight weeks later in January of 2012, Tsiros had a miscarriage.
“I think her death and all that stress had something to do with it,” she said.
Tsiros found support from family, friends and a website based in England called The Miscarriage Association, a virtual support group site run by women who suffered miscarriages.
“A lot of women aren’t informed about miscarriages. I wasn’t informed. You think it’s something you did,” said Tsiros. "One out of four women have miscarriages., but most don’t even know it happens.”
To work through her pain and sadness, Tsiros turned to her artistic and crafty side.
“I have a lot of girlfriends who have little girls and they all have baby headbands," she said. "I felt they couldn’t be too hard to make.”
Bitty Baby Bands was born in March 2012.
“I was really upset, and although I had a great support system, I had inner turmoil. Making baby headbands became a creative outlet for me to put my energy into and get over hump of sadness. It makes me excited to be a mom in the future,” she said.
Each handmade band is $10-13 and Tsiros sends 10 percent back to the Miscarriage Association as a donation. Purchases can be made on bittybabybands.com.
She sells them to baby photographers at wholesale prices and is hoping to get them into stores soon.
In just a few short months, the bands have helped Tsiros come a long way from the dark place she was in at the beginning of the year.
“I used to see little kids and get really sad, now I get excited," she said.
