Miscarriage: Women Sharing from the Heart: Women Sharing from the Heart

By Marie Allen and Shelly Marks

Compassion and support from 100 women "Women who miscarry must not and need not be left in emotional isolation. I am pleased that this timely and sensitive reflection on miscarriage is now available to grieving women and to those who are involved in their lives." --from the Foreword by Richard F. Jones III, MD, FACOG President, The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Based on the authors' own experiences as well as the shared experiences of women from across the country, Miscarriage: Women Sharing From the Heart is more than a helpful resource. This candid and poignant book helps you understand and work through your deepest feelings and concerns and, most importantly, reassures you that you aren't alone. The authors offer: * Support, empathy, and a clear path towards healing * The personal stories of 100 women talking about their miscarriage experiences * Interviews with fathers on how they have been affected * Helpful advice for partners, family members, and health care professionals

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471548340
• ISBN13: 9780471548348
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Wiley
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.83 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.6" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

This book saved me.

If you have experienced a miscarriage, BUY THIS BOOK!I lost my first pregnancy at 17 weeks after trying to conceive for 2 1/2 years. After the loss I was in a fog of despair I had never come close to experiencing. This book put into words so many of my feelings that I was too lost and raw with pain to even begin to explore. All of the books I had read only dealed with early loss or stillbirth. I felt like my feelings of mourning weren't normal and I felt completely alone--like I was the only person in the world to suffer a second trimester loss.This book had accounts of women who had lost their babies at the same point in pregnancy I had and those accounts saved me. Also, some people have mentioned that the physical aspects aren't mentioned, but the most important physical aspects for me were talked about. My milk coming in, seeing my body no longer growing with life, etc. were some very physical aspects that no one had discussed with me but were touched on in the book.Through reading this book I stopped feeling like I was crazy or losing it. I learned to honor my grief and allow myself to mourn the life of my child and the hopes and dreams that were dashed when we lost our baby.This book also helped me deal with my mother. She kept getting upset when I'd cry. She would call my sisters and say "oh no, she's crying again" as if I was doing something criminal. I gave her the book finally and she read it and hasn't said one thing to me since to make me feel guilt over mourning my child. Good luck to all of you out there that are so unfortunate to have to buy this book. And a huge thank you to the authors for providing a much needed bible for women dealing with loss.

This is such a GREAT book!!!!

Having had a miscarriage myself recently, I wanted to read all the books I could about it. I found most of them to be pretty dry, very "fact based" and brushing over the emotional aspect of miscarriage. You see, miscarriage is much less a PHYSICAL experience but an EMOTIONAL one. The pain and grief you suffer is much like the death of a close family member. However with miscarriage there are no rituals--no burials, no supportive phone calls, most women don't even know if the baby was a boy or a girl. It is a very sad and lonely time and society certainly does not recognize the emotional aspect. No one can understand the devastation until they have gone through it themselves.What I love about this book is that there are no medical facts--this book is about FEELINGS. There are hundreds of interviews with women who lost babies to miscarriage or stillbirth. They share their feelings, how they coped. Even "weird" things they did to help comfort themselves that many women (myself included!) could relate to. I felt less alone after reading this book. It made me realize that many women felt the same way I do after their miscarriages, and that it is ok to grieve. I absolutely LOVE this book and would highly recommend it to anyone who has suffered a miscarriage or knows someone who has.

A wonderful source of support and understanding

I don't know if I would ever have described a book as supportive before reading this. A friend of mine (who lost a pregancy in week 16) sent this to me right after I lost my baby. It really helped me during my grieving process, which lasted about 5-6 months. By reading this book, I realized that I was not alone, nor was I crazy or overreacting to what was a devastating loss for me. I read it, cried, scribbled notes in the margins, and grieved (and grieved and grieved). It felt like a support group in a book!The book was also useful in helping my husband understand what it was I was going through. I was too angry, sad and exhausted to be able to explain myself to him and it helped me to be able to simply underline passages and have him read them. It's important to note that this book deals almost exclusivley with the emotional side of miscarriage. It does not attempt to explain the physical components of loss. It is for that reason that I think it is so valuable. After all, most of us are fine physically after losing a pregnancy. It's the emotional scars that take so long to heal.Sadly, I have bought four more copies of this to give to friends of mine who have also suffered miscarriages. While I am grateful that this resource exists, I wish so much that none of us needed it.

Wonderful book - really helped in the grieving process

I discovered this book after my 3rd miscarriage, and I am incredibly grateful for it. It has helped me to begin work through my grief. It was so reassuring to realize that many other women have had similar feelings, and that my feelings are normal and healthy. After reading this book, I decided that rather than getting rid of any `mementos' from my pregnancies (such as ultrasound pictures and journal entries), I wanted to gather them to together and keep them as a concrete reminder of my babies' brief lives. I also decided to name each of my children. I found that acknowledging and honoring their lives has not caused me to dwell more on the losses, but to be able to grieve for them, which I believe is really the first step to `recovering' from the loss. Obviously I will never `recover', but the sadness does decrease over time.I would recommend this book to any woman who has had a miscarriage, whether recently or years ago. If any of my friends are unfortunate enough to suffer a miscarriage in the future I think that I would bring them this book and a large box of tissues (and maybe a heating pad and something for the cramps too :-) ! ) I also wish that this book was required reading for every OB (or any medical professionals who deals with pregnant women). I was lucky enough to have a wonderful midwife, but I have heard horror stories about treatment from many other women. I think that this book would give them a better perspective on miscarriage from a woman's point of view.I was also glad to see that this book was not overly religious. So many of the books on miscarriage are incredibly "Christian" - many bible quotes etc. There is a wonderful chapter at the end of the book that definitely deals with spirituality and religion that I appreciated, but it was not the main focus of the book.

I felt so validated by this book

I read this book shortly after I miscarried my first baby (and first pregancy) at 12 weeks. I was a little surprised when a good friend sent it to me because it seemed like too much too soon. But in actuality this was the ideal book for me to read immediately following the miscarriage. It helped me to begin my grieving process and it validated every emotion I was experiencing. I highly recommend this book to women (and men) who have experienced a miscarriage prior to the 20th week of pregnancy. The narratives spoke to me and the author's words helped me begin to work through the pain, fear, anger, guilt and confusion. I cannot give this a higher recommendation.