Finding Healing and Hope After Miscarriage

Receiving permission to grieve and acknowledging the loss are crucial. Otherwise, one can get stuck in denial, repressed emotions or depression, which can greatly impact one's spiritual, emotional, and physical health.

When a baby is lost through a miscarriage, most mothers- and fathers-need to be given “permission to grieve.” Too often, well-meaning individuals minimize the loss- as if, somehow, the fact that the child was never carried to term makes him or her unimportant (or, at least, far less important).  Yet the grief and sense of loss can be just as strong and prolonged as with the death of an older child or other relative.

Common Reactions to a Miscarriage

Whether reactions to a miscarriage are experienced immediately or later, the emotional and psychological responses to a miscarriage typically parallel those of any significant loss. In particular, the cycle of grief needs to be accepted and completed in order for healing to occur. 

Many who have studied the grief process delineated five stages one must navigate:

• shock and denial,
• anger,
• depression and detachment,
• dialogue and bargaining,
• and (finally) acceptance.

It is important to note that these stages are seldom experienced in a linear progression, but rather tend to occur in spiraling cycles until the loss is resolved.

Women who have lost a baby sometimes feel guilty and relive the pregnancy, trying to recall what they might have done (or not done) that could have caused the miscarriage.  With rare exceptions, such as drug or alcohol abuse or gross malnutrition, such guilt is unfounded and is simply a normal maternal reaction.

Source:  Permission to Grieve (Focus on the Family) 



If you are dealing with these or other common reactions to a miscarriage, we can help.  Contact us and get on the road to recovery - there is hope and healing for you!