Mental and emotional effects of miscarriage and how to deal with them

Mental and emotional effects of miscarriage

The effects differ from one mother to another. The factors impacting these effects are the duration of the pregnancy; a mother losing a fetus at five months of pregnancy would have formed a stronger bond, would have seen the baby on ultrasounds, and felt the kicks. While a miscarriage during the early stages is still traumatizing, the effects would be less hard.

There is also a difference between a first-time mother who hasn’t experienced motherhood yet, and a second or third-time mother, who has other children to lessen the effect of this ordeal.

Miscarriage is a type of grief; the emotional burden is similar to the one experience after a death of a loved one.

Feelings women experience after miscarriage

- Hopelessness

She might feel that she won’t be able to have a successful pregnancy again.

- Sadness

- Guilt

Women tend to blame themselves for miscarrying, they also might look for someone or something to blame for their loss.

- Anger

- Loneliness

Especially when living far from family and friends. Many women feel that while they are pregnant, they are in good company, and they feel lonely if the pregnancy is lost.

Ways to overcome these mental and emotional effects

- It is important to make the woman going through this unfortunate experience feel that she is not alone and that the feelings she is experiencing are normal and common among all women who go through the same experience.

- A woman who just went through a miscarriage must allow herself to feel, and not suppress her emotions. Those around her must remind her of this.

- Instead of bottling up and keeping those emotions to herself, the grieving woman should be encouraged to express her emotions and share them with her loved ones.

- Those around a grieving mother, must allow her to take her all the time she needs in processing her emotions and give her the needed space to grieve.

- There is no way out but through!

This means that one can’t recover from an experience unless they go through the emotions and the feelings this experience caused.

Therefore, those around the woman who miscarried accept her state of mind and emotions. And offer moral support, by offering to listen and be there if needed. Offering help and support in taking care of the woman’s children and help around the house can also be very helpful at this stage.

- Support groups

Talking to other women who have been in a similar experience helps also in overcoming the emotional effects of miscarriage. Great things can happen from people sharing similar negative experiences, as people feel less lonely.

- Therapy

If the support of family, friends, and support groups still didn’t provide the necessary healing, psychotherapy can help as well. The course of treatment can be any type in treating grief, like CBT, or behavioral therapy, that helps with motivation.

Grieving takes time!

There is no ideal time to recover from miscarriage, each woman needs a different amount of time than others. As long as there is gradual progress and improvement there is no need to be alarmed. However, if things are not improving or getting worse, a referral to a mental health professional either a psychotherapist or a psychiatrist might be needed to prescribe medication in the latter case which might help with mood alleviation and getting back to normal routine.

Giving hope

The mother who has miscarried needs to hear from those around her that she will get pregnant again, and have a baby, especially if there is no medical reason to contradict this.

Check out Postpartum depression: the untold story!