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Miscarriage
Approximately 1 in 4 pregnancies ends in miscarriage.
Early miscarriage is often defined as the loss of a pregnancy or baby up until 11 weeks 6 days gestation. The loss of a pregnancy or baby from 12 weeks up until 23 weeks 6 days gestation is often termed late miscarriage.
Any loss after 24 weeks gestation is often considered a stillbirth.
Common Thoughts & Feelings
Suffering a miscarriage can cause a wide range of emotions. Our clients often express feeling:
- Disappointed, depressed, ashamed, guilty
- Unprepared, frightened, in disbelief
- Naïve, betrayed, let down
- Bewildered, broken, devastated
Other feelings such as dread, panic, worry and anxiety can also be common.
Someone experiencing miscarriage may have the following thoughts:
- Why has this happened to me?
- Is there something wrong with me/us?
- What did I do wrong?
- There must be something the doctors can do to save my baby.
- I should have known there was something wrong.
- If only I had….
- I just need to be pregnant.
- I will never have a baby.
How Petals can help:
Petals counselling sessions provide a secure space for parents to talk about the fear and broken expectations that usually come following the early or late miscarriage of pregnancy.
Whilst most women know that early miscarriage is possible, when it happens to them it often brings a mixture of emotions that leave them feeling vulnerable, frightened about the future, and let down. Having the space to talk about this and process these feelings with a Petals counsellor supports parents to find their resilience and feel able to try again.
Late miscarriage is usually unexpected, and couples often report feeling naïve that they trusted their pregnancy was safe.
Petals counselling sessions provide a safe space to explore the bewilderment that this has happened, and the shock and trauma that is often experienced as couples have to face the birth of their baby many weeks before they had expected.
For both types of miscarriage, our counselling sessions become an important place to re-visit difficult memories and process any trauma that was experienced at that time. Working together through this enables couples to find hope and trust in the future for their family and to begin to believe that a new pregnancy is possible, and that future pregnancy will be successful.
Read Chloe’s Story
Read Victoria’s Story
Read Lucy & Tom’s Story
Join our closed Facebook group, Petals Together: a supportive group of others with shared experiences, who know how you are feeling.
You can also find out more about our specialist counselling here.