Coping With Pregnancy Loss: Why Maternal Mental Health Support Matters
Pregnancy loss is a lot more common than people think, and yet almost nobody talks about it.
May*, a 37-year-old married woman, lost her unborn baby at 9 weeks.
The sadness was extreme. Heartbreak, numbness, disorientation, shock, all of it at once. Her pregnancy, a journey she’d been so hopeful about, was cut short without warning.
That’s when she knew she needed help. May came to The Women’s Center and started seeing Pamela Uncles, a therapist who specializes in maternal mental health. Just having someone to talk to, someone who understood the phases of grief and perinatal mood changes, made a real difference.
Seven months later, May reminded her husband of the baby’s due date as they sat in bed one night. They expressed their sadness together, but also a readiness to close a painful chapter in their lives. She told her husband she’d been feeling better lately and marking that date felt like a way to begin again. Now she’s looking ahead.
“I feel more in control because I’ve been continuing to work with my therapist and am also working with a fertility specialist, and so far, everything is normal, which feels good,” she says.
*Name changed to protect client privacy.
A Loss We Don’t Talk About Enough
Pregnancy loss is a lot more common than people think, and yet almost nobody talks about it. Studies show 14 to 20 percent of pregnancies end in miscarriage, and some researchers put the real number closer to one in four when you count all forms of early loss. And the emotional toll is real. In the weeks right after a loss, 18 to 32 percent of women experience anxiety, and 11 to 30 percent experience depression.
But because people grieve this so privately, they often don’t get the same support as other losses. That’s exactly why maternal mental health care must cover the whole journey, not just postpartum depression, but the sadness, anxiety, and disorientation that can hit at any stage.
Care That Meets You Where You Are
The Women’s Center has been providing mental health support to our community for decades. And more recently, we’ve become part of a special statewide initiative to expand access to maternal mental health care, made possible thanks to the Virginia Health Care Foundation. We’re grateful to be entering our second year of funding from the foundation, and thankful for their continued faith in our work.
That means more people like May have somewhere to turn. Someone to talk to. A path toward feeling like themselves again, whatever comes next.
If you or someone you love is navigating pregnancy loss or another maternal mental health challenge, please know support is here. You don’t have to carry it alone. Reach out to us.
