miscarriage and loss
The loss of a baby whether through early or late miscarriage, death in utero, or stillbirth, can be a devastating experience for expectant parents. The grief can be crippling. Parents who have lost a child can feel like they will never experience happiness again. Many emotions can arise such as anger towards other pregnant women, self-blame, worthlessness, meaninglessness, fear, and desperation for another pregnancy. Some people feel that they could never survive the anxiety of another pregnancy. Some people say that their families and friends don't really understand their loss, expecting another pregnancy to make everything okay. Some people experience significant anxiety and depression as a result losing a child, and this can seriously impair their functioning.
Network psychologists assist couples in these tragic situations to process the difficult feelings that accompany such losses. Counselling involves providing women and couples with a space to acknowledge their sadness, and address the many emotions that can consume their lives. Counselling can also involve working on readiness for another pregnancy, and on managing fear and anxiety that might accompany a subsequent pregnancy.
Conception after loss
We understand that women and couples often need support to work through their grief before trying to conceive again. No subsequent pregnancy replaces the baby who didn't survive. We support women and couples in their unfolding readiness towards trying again (if this is what they choose). Often women feel desperate to fall pregnant again, and challenges associated with conception can be particularly stressful and painful following loss. We understand that the path through fertility may have been fraught, which can compound the grief you may be experiencing. We support you through fertility struggles and assisted reproduction.
Pregnancy after loss
We see many women and couples in subsequent pregnancies after loss/es. Understandably anxiety can be high in subsequent pregnancies, and we support you through this anxiety. Many women feel hesitant or fearful to bond with their baby in a later pregnancy, sometimes feeling guilty to do so. We help you to process your grief, honour your lost child, and make a new space for the baby you are next expecting.
Parenting after loss
We also work with women and couples who are facing the mixed emotions that come up in parenting their subsequent children. For example, parents can feel torn between their grief for their lost child, and their love for their next child. They can feel guilty for experiencing positive feelings. A common difficulty bereaved parents face is coming to terms with knowing that their living child would not be here if their previous child had not died.
All of our psychologists are members of The Perinatal Loss Centre. If you have experienced a loss and are seeking information and peer support you can follow the Facebook Page or join the online support group of the Perinatal Loss Centre. |