Contexts and evolution of women's responses to miscarriage during the first year after loss

Abstract

Descriptions of 85 women's feelings about miscarriage at 1, 6, 16, and 52 weeks were inductively coded, rank-ordered, and clustered into 3 responses: healing, actively grieving, and overwhelmed. Women who were actively grieving or overwhelmed at 1 week experienced significantly less distress from 6 weeks on. Responses at 1 week differed with regards to those who had a history of perinatal loss or went on to experience negative life events or sexual distance after loss. One year responses differed based on who was pregnant or gave birth, miscarried again, lived through a higher number of post-loss negative life events, or experienced interpersonal or sexual distance from their mate. Responses were not influenced by gestational age at loss or having other children. ß

Resolution of Depression and Grief during the First Year after Miscarriage: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial of Couples-Focused Interventions

“…24 Interpersonal and sexual distance 1 year after loss has been associated with male partners not engaging in caring acts and couples' failure to mutually share feelings about miscarriage. 25,26 Partner support has also been linked to women's well-being during pregnancies after loss. 27,28 Miscarriage also impacts men.…”

The presence and predictors of complicated grief symptoms in perinatally bereaved mothers from a bereavement support organization

“…The non-significant results may be due to less than 20% of the sample having experienced multiple losses, and hence it is unlikely that there was sufficient variance in this characteristic. However, Swanson et al's (2007) sample had a higher proportion of mothers with other perinatal losses and also reported no association between this variable and self-reported grief distress one year postmiscarriage. While some mothers may find the presence of living children assists them in managing their grief (Toedter, Lasker, & Alhadeff, 1988), having to support the siblings after the death may contribute to emotional distress in others (Lannen et al, 2008).…”

“…While some mothers may find the presence of living children assists them in managing their grief (Toedter, Lasker, & Alhadeff, 1988), having to support the siblings after the death may contribute to emotional distress in others (Lannen et al, 2008). However, the presence of other children has been found by some researchers to have had no impact on the grief of the women who experienced miscarriage (Swanson et al, 2007). It is possible that whether the other children were born before or after (or both) may make a difference, but we did not have the power to examine this.…”

“…While the presence of other children in the family is positively correlated with lower levels of depression, anxiety, and grief symptoms in some studies (Bennett et al, 2008), other studies showed a negative (La-Roche et al, 1984) or no impact (Swanson et al, 2007).…”

“…Another study showed that women without children who experience miscarriage were significantly more likely to develop major depressive disorder than women who miscarried and had living children (Neugebauer et al, 1997). While losses further along in pregnancy, or of a neonate, may be more distressing than earlier losses (Lasker & Toedter, 1991;Gaudet, Séjourné, Camborieux, Rogers, & Chabrol, 2010), other studies did not find an association between psychological distress and gestational age (Bennett et al, 2008;Klier, Geller, & Ritsher, 2002;Neugebauer et al, 1997;Swanson, Connor, Jolley, Pettinato, & Wang, 2007).…”