Approximately one in five pregnancies ends in miscarriage according to the Miscarriage Association of Ireland.
The loss of your baby can feel like an isolating and frightening experience and it can feel difficult to speak about.
It is important to communicate your feelings and thoughts to your partner, family and friends so you do not bottle up the feelings of grief and disappointment. Taking some time off so you can recover physically and emotionally is vital.
Shock can set in initially and you may not realise how much you may be holding in lots of feelings.
Taking the time to make space to reflect and feel how you are feeling will mean you will process the grief faster.
Take it one day at a time and know that there are no wrong feelings when you are grieving the loss of your baby.
Remember that once you allow yourself to feel the sadness, it will get easier in time. Losing a baby means we lose the picture of how we expected our future to turn out (this is the part I found most difficult when I experienced a miscarriage).
Once a woman finds out she is pregnant and has a due date, her view of the next few months and years changes. It is normal to feel huge sadness and disappointment about the future you had planned.
If you are trying for a baby again, anxiety and fear can creep in, which is understandable after experiencing a loss. Fathers grieve too and need their loss to be acknowledged. Fathers also grieve the loss of a baby and the future they had hoped for so it important that men are supported at this time.
It is never too late to acknowledge your baby whether your miscarriage was recent or long ago.
It can be very healing to do something in memory of your baby, regardless of how recent or long ago your miscarriage experience took place. This could be done by planting a tree, a rose bush, letting off balloons, lighting a candle or adding your baby's name to the memory tree in University Maternity Hospital Limerick. There are many ways to acknowledge and remember your baby and only you will know which is right for you and your family.
See The Miscarriage Association of Ireland for further helpful information-https://miscarriage.ie/
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