Monica Rafie lives in the NW suburbs of Chicago with her husband and five children. In 2002, she founded www.benotafraid.net in response to a growing need to help parents find online community, life-affirming encouragement, and services and support in their own areas. Later, she and colleagues Sandy Buck and Tracy Winsor started Be Not Afraid Ministry in response to the absence of local, comprehensive, peer support for parents after prenatal diagnosis in Catholic communities. As a result, Be Not Afraid Ministry is active in several dioceses at this time, and in development in a handful others. For questions regarding the development of a local service in your area, contact Tracy at benotafraidnc@live.com. Monica Rafie and Tracy Winsor are both Contributing Writers for HLI America, an initiative of Human Life of America.
As word spread of a new non-invasive, highly accurate prenatal test for Down syndrome, MaterniT21, the headlines could hardly have been more sensational: The End of Down Syndrome! Will We Cull Those with Down Syndrome? Are Kids with Down Syndrome on the Road to Extinction? This mainstream response seems to suggest a terrible acknowledgment of what happens […]
Parents who receive news that their unborn child has a serious birth defect, genetic syndrome, or other medical complication are often left to sort out their responses on their own. As co-founders of the network Be Not Afraid, for almost ten years, we have had the privilege of supporting parents who carry their babies to […]
