Pregnancy Loss and Infant Death

Pregnancy Loss (miscarriage, stillbirth or termination)/ Early Infant Loss or Other Type of Neonatal Loss – After any of these type of losses, many women (and their partners) often experience sadness, shock, anxiety, anger, isolation and difficulty eating or sleeping. Complicating factors can include lack of recognition of the loss by others, hormonal changes that are a part of any postpartum recovery, previous unacknowledged losses and concerns about future pregnancies or decisions about having children.

Because of our culture’s discomfort with such losses, individuals who have had these experiences often feel that their experience is unacknowledged and that their feelings are unacceptable. This can lead to an increase in the intensity and length of a person’s symptoms of grief.

I see both individuals and couples who have experienced perinatal loss, as well as other types of reproductive loss such as infertility, or challenges and losses involved during the process of adoption.