The Experience of Miscarriage in First Pregnancy: The Women's Voices

Abstract

The study is a qualitative analysis of 19 interviews with Israeli women who have lost a first pregnancy to miscarriage. Neither the public nor health care professionals are fully aware of the implications and significance of miscarriage to the woman who has lost the pregnancy. The goal of this study was to understand and give voice to the women's experience. Five themes were revealed--the greater the joy, the more painful the crash; the nature and intensity of the loss; sources of support; life after the miscarriage; and recommendations to professionals. The experience of miscarriage was found to be grounded in the meaning of being a woman, as the loss of the pregnancy undermines the women's basic belief in their fertility and as a result threatens their meaning and role as women.

The psychological and social consequences of miscarriage

“…The severity of the psychological effects of miscarriages has also been reported in women and to a lesser extent in their partners [37] and siblings [42]. For example, increased anxiety lasting up to 4 months after the miscarriage [43], depression [44] and grief reactions have been reported in women and men immediately after miscarriages [45,46].…”

“…The consequences of facing this traumatic experience alone in relative isolation can have severe psychological consequences. Gerber-Epstein, Leichtentritt and Benyamini described the need to recognize that the impact of the miscarriage may be proportional to the desire for the pregnancy [37]. The social and cultural environment tends to have near universal pronatal expectations, and ignores the need to acknowledge the failed pregnancy and mourning [38].…”

Cuerpo y ontología: La muerte perinatal y su duelo en el panorama tecno-científico del sistema sanitario

“…How this embodied corporeal confidence intersects with healthcare and discourse is evident in the following extracts. Firstly, Monica, whose baby boy was diagnosed as having died intra utero, following a check-up at 32 weeks: because you always think that if something is going to happen, it's during the first three months, not to tell anyone, to take good care of yourself, to not overdo it physically, the usual things, but then after three months, then, for me it was no problem [Monica, personal interview] you don't smoke, you don't drink, you take such good care of yourself [Celia, personal interview] I was 15 weeks gone and as I'd passed 12 weeks, well, I just didn't think anything could happen… later you realise that it can happen in any week [Almudena, forum member] When so much responsibility for a healthy birth is placed on the mother, and female identity is socially manifest and so strongly related to motherhood, it is understandable that some of these women recur to a self-criticism and call into question their own normality and sense of identity (see also Gerber-Epstein, Leichtentritt & Benyamini, 2008;Murphy, 2012;Kelley & Trinidad, 2013), particularly when the loss occurs during a first pregnancy:…”

Marginal matters: Pregnancy loss as a social event

“…Since the ICPD, these stories have become increasingly investigated by medical anthropologists and feminists aiming to 'give voice' to marginalized groups or events that had too long been silenced in normative or technical accounts of reproduction. These scholars seek to contextualize and diversify the unheard voices talking about subjective experiences of reproductive loss in different cultural settings (Cecil, 1996;Erviti, Castro, & Collado, 2004;Gerber-Epstein, Leichtentritt, & Benyamini, 2009;Layne, 2003a, b;Letherby, 1993;Littlewood, 1999;Savage, 1996;Simmons, Singh, Maconochie, Doyle, & Green, 2006). They show how the event inherently relates to social affairs such as illness, pain and suffering, marriage and kinship, the body and personhood, or death and mourning.…”