Effects of Reproductive Loss on Mental Health

One in four pregnancies ends in miscarriage; one in 80 pregnancies ends in stillbirth. As many as one in six couples will experience problems with infertility. In the United States, more than one million elective abortions are performed each year. The grief associated with such reproductive losses is often minimized, denied, and considered to be outside the normal “grieving rules” of society. Yet individuals who’ve suffered these losses can experience profound grief and emotional pain. Their grief needs to be acknowledged by themselves and by others.

Varying experiences of reproductive grief are known to affect the women who directly experienced the pregnancy loss, as well as their partners, parents, other family members, and friends. (See the “Effects of Reproductive Loss and Grief on Men, Siblings, and Grandparents” for more information.)

• Between 12 and 15% of pregnancies end in a first trimester, recognizable pregnancy loss…Because this type of loss is so common, it is often underestimated as a source of emotional problems…[Yet] rates of depression are reported to range between 22 and 55% in the year following a miscarriage.1

• The highest risk time for depression is the first 12 weeks after a pregnancy loss.2

• Miscarriage, stillbirth, abortion, and infertility can elicit a range of grief reactions among the parents and other family members.3

• Couples undergoing treatment for infertility may experience grief after failed attempts to achieve a pregnancy.4

• The most likely emotions to be present [after a miscarriage] relate to a relatively brief period of loss characterized by grief, dysphoria, and anxiety. The risk of a more intense or longer lasting distress is likely to occur if the woman strongly desired the pregnancy, waited a long time to conceive, has no living children, had elective abortions or other losses in the past, had few warning signs that a loss might occur, experienced the loss relatively late in the pregnancy, has little social support, or has a history of coping poorly.5

• When there is an elevated level of distress, it tends to take the form of depressive and anxiety disorders, often accompanied by feelings of guilt and worries about future reproductive competence.6

• Women who miscarry or abort their pregnancies are less likely to obtain professional help than those with stillbirths. This is most true of abortions, which may be most difficult to grieve, partly because of the intensity of the conflict [within society over the abortion issue], and partly because there are few people available who will help mothers deal with that kind of pregnancy loss.7

• With any loss, grief can come in many different ways. The initial shock and numbness will eventually [give way] to other very intense emotions. The grieving process is different for everyone, with the one common thread being pain.8

• Possible emotional and psychological side effects that may be experienced following an abortion include regret, anger, guilty feelings, shame, loneliness or isolation, impaired self-confidence, insomnia or nightmares, relationship issues, suicidal thoughts and feelings, eating disorders, depression, and anxiety.9

• Palliative care health professionals are discovering that an abortion experience can be a major event in a woman’s life that may impair her ability to manage pain if her psychological and spiritual pain are not addressed.10

Effects of Reproductive Loss on Mental Health

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1. Frederick R. Jelovsek, “Getting Pregnant—Miscarriage: The Emotional Effects of Miscarriage,” Women’s Health Resource, http://www.wdxcyber.com/nmood07.htm (accessed August 13, 2015).

2. Ibid.

3. Holly Richardson, “Grieving and Healing,” Gentlebirth.org, http://www.gentlebirth.org/archives/griefppr.html (accessed August 13, 2015).

4. Your Total Health, “Grief: Potential Causes of Grief,” Reviewed by Steven A. King and Tahir Tellioglu, (accessed August 13, 2015).

5. Norman Brier, “Understanding and Managing the Emotional Reactions to a Miscarriage,” Obstetrics & Gynecology 93 (1999): 151–155.

6. Ibid.

7. Philip G. Ney, “The Effects of Pregnancy Loss on Woman’s Health,” Social Science and Medicine 38, no. 9, (1994): 1193–1200.

8. American Pregnancy Association, “Pregnancy Loss—Stillbirth: Surviving Emotionally,” http://americanpregnancy.org/pregnancyloss/sbsurvivingemotionally.html (accessed August 13, 2015).

9. American Pregnancy Association, “Pregnancy Options—Abortion: Possible Emotional Side Effects, ”http://www.americanpregnancy.org/unplannedpregnancy/abortionemotionaleffects.html (accessed August 13, 2015).

10. The deVeber Institute for Bioethics and Social Research, “Abortion Grief on the Deathbed,” deVeber Perspectives 2007 newsletter.