At a Loss

An article on miscarriage can be found in the March issue of Women's Health Magazine, "At a Loss: What to Expect When You're No Longer Expecting." It's a decent article, which centers around the author's own experience. However, not all the causes of miscarriage are explored, and there is a "What are the Chances?" section that gives me pause. Apparently a "sense of purpose", a planned pregnancy, decreases your chance of miscarriage by 40%. And eating fruits and vegetables? Cuts your risk in half. Somehow I don't really find these "findings" comforting. But instead wonder if it just continues to perpetuate the notion that a woman is to blame for a miscarriage. I did, however, appreciate the acknowledgment that miscarriage is a fairly taboo subject, as it involves both sex and death. And it is a rarely discussed topic, despite the fact that 15-20% of pregnancies end in miscarriage. If only some of the myths about miscarriage were dispelled, and there was an acknowledgment that this affects many, many women, perhaps fewer would suffer in silence. Everyday in America, 4,780 women endure a pregnancy loss. And that's a lot of people.