An article written by Anne Nordal Broen of the University of Oslo in Norway and published by the American Psychosomatic Society in 2004 provides interesting insights following a study of two groups of women. The first group were women who had suffered a miscarriage and the second were women who had undergone an induced abortion. These women were interviewed to determine the psychological impact of their experiences.
The author questioned the assumption that a miscarriage creates a problem for the woman it happens to while an abortion solves a problem for the woman that chooses it. This assumption, of course fails to consider women who were coerced into the decision by unfavourable circumstances, uncooperative partners or by unfortunate results following genetic testing.
In this study, she excluded abortions due to genetic abnormalities and, as much as possible, late miscarriages. The women were interviewed 10days, 6months and 2years after their experience.
In a lot of the women in the miscarriage group, there were very high levels of what is called intrusion (strong feelings of grief/loss with flashbacks/nightmares/reliving the event) at the 10day interview. Part of what was credited as being responsible for the strong reaction to the experience of a miscarriage is the shock-like event that a miscarriage is; a miscarriage is unexpected and frightening and can shake the most stable of us to the core. This intrusion, however, had remarkably subsided by the 2year interview. Women who did not have the immediate grief reaction after the event were found to suffer higher levels of intrusion at the later interviews.
2years may seem like a long time but the point I want to make is that no matter how bad you feel right now, you will feel better one day. You will always remember the loss but it won’t always hurt this much.
