The meaning of miscarriage to others: Is it an unrecognized loss?

Miscarriage is a relatively prevalent occurrence in our society. The report ed incidence of this event indicates that 20% of all women experience a mis carriage. Women who have miscarried report friends and family responding in ways that seem to try to reduce the impact and importance of the event. Th is leaves the grieving woman with a sense of little support or understandin g of what she had just experienced. Furthermore, the experiences reported b y women who have had a miscarriage are quite different from those reported by other individuals who have experienced other types of loss such as a spo use, partner, parent, or friend. Women who have miscarried report a lack of recognition that they have experienced a loss. Little is known about how s ociety views,miscarriage or why individuals respond in such an apparently u nsupportive manner to a woman who has had a miscarriage, The present work s ought to determine whether miscarriage is an unrecognized loss and to asses s the meaning of miscarriage to others. Although the results indicate misca rriage is viewed as a loss, it is a loss with minimal grounded or valuative meaning for others, which suggests that the cultural norm of silence surro unding early pregnancy and miscarriage should be lifted.