Miscarriage and Pregnancy Loss Are Taboo, and That Makes the Experience Worse
We need to break the silence around pregnancy loss. We can do it through science, empathy, and shared humanity.
“They put me in the labor and delivery unit,” mom said. “I was in the same room as all the women who had just given birth.” Her tone was somber. She looked into the distance as she told me this. “One of them asked another what she had. ‘A boy,’ she said. ‘Oh, I had a girl,’ she told the other woman. ‘Maybe they’ll be friends one day,’ she joked. Then she looked at me and asked me.” At this point, mom stopped telling me the story for about half a minute. I let her have as much time as she wanted. Her tone of voice changed. She became a very sad and vulnerable person, not the superhuman woman she’d been all my life.
“I told her I had a miscarriage, and that I just had the procedure to empty out my womb,” she said. She had tears in her eyes at this point. My heart broke. I found myself sobbing.
“What was their reaction?” I asked.
“They got up from their beds and walked over, and all but one climbed into the bed with me to hug me,” she said. She broke down crying at that point.
