Poetic voices: Women’s experience of miscarriage

Abstract

Recently, there has been some attention paid to miscarriage in the media, yet societal attitudes towards the stigma and disenfranchisement some women experience after miscarriage are slow to change. Miscarriage is a common event. Statistics show that more than a quarter of all pregnancies result in miscarriage, with the majority occurring in the first twelve weeks of pregnancy. However, there is very little research into its long-term impact on women. The article is loosely based on my Ph.D. research findings on the long-term effects of miscarriage on some women many decades after the event. Here, I want to raise awareness of the long-term psychological effects of miscarriage and to consider the needs of women who miscarry. I also reflect on my own experience of miscarriage more than twenty years ago and I use a reflexive approach in which I embrace my subjectivity and bring it into the heart of my writing. I present my research findings through poetic inquiry, as I feel that poetry is a powerful medium for evoking lived experience. I have represented my data in poetic form, keeping as close as possible to the participants’ original words. This method allowed me to distil my participants’ experiences of miscarriage and to present these in a redolent and intimate way. I include a companion poem, where I reflect on the experience of writing this article and ponder on the impact miscarriage still has on me now. I believe that poetry can be a powerful medium for evoking lived experience and that it gives voice to my research participants allowing them to speak powerfully of their experience of miscarriage. I hope that in the future there will be a deeper understanding from health professionals and by society in general about the impact of miscarriage so that women will be better heard and supported.