Coping with Pregnancy Loss and Miscarriage
Creating a Family: Talk about Adoption, Foster & Kinship Care
03/05/21
•49m
About
Comments
Transcript
Featured In
Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks!
Have you or someone you care about experienced a miscarriage or stillbirth? We talk about coping with pregnancy loss with Dr. Poonum Sharma, a Licensed Psychologist specializing in reproductive issues. She is a long term member of the Mental Health Provider Professional Group at the American Society of Reproductive Medicine.
In this episode, we cover:
Miscarriage and Stillbirth Statistics
- Distinction between a miscarriage and stillbirth. A stillbirth is the death of a baby before or during delivery. Both miscarriage and stillbirth describe pregnancy loss, but they differ according to when the loss occurs. In the United States, a miscarriage is usually defined as loss of a baby before the 20th week of pregnancy, and a stillbirth is loss of a baby at 20 weeks of pregnancy and later.
- About 1 pregnancy in 100 (1%) end in stillbirth, and each year about 24,000 babies are stillborn in the United States.
- For women who know they’re pregnant, about 10 to 15 in 100 pregnancies (10 to 15 percent) end in miscarriage. As many as half of all pregnancies may end in miscarriage. We don’t know the exact number because a miscarriage may happen before a woman knows she’s pregnant.
- Most miscarriages happen in the first trimester before the 12th week of pregnancy. Miscarriage in the second trimester (between 13 and 19 weeks) happens in 1 to 5 in 100 (1 to 5 percent) pregnancies.
- The primary cause of first trimester miscarriage is chromosomal abnormalities.
The Grief Process
- Factors that may impact grief:
- How long a woman or couple has been trying to get pregnant.
- Timing in the pregnancy of the loss.
- The number of miscarriages or pregnancy losses she has experienced.
- The cause of the miscarriage or lack of an explanation?
- Patient’s age.
- If she has existing children. Secondary infertility.
- The ability to talk about the loss to family and friends.
- Temperament of the patient and her partner.
- Pregnancy loss before others know about the pregnancy.
Helping Patients Cope
- How can those around the woman or couple support them during this time?
- How to share the news.
- How can nurses help patients cope?
- What are the symptoms of compassion fatigue that infertility nurses should be aware of.
- How can nurses prevent or cope with compassion fatigue.
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
· Weekly podcasts
· Weekly articles/blog posts
· Resource pages on all aspects of family building
Support the show (https://creatingafamily.org/donation/)
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
- Weekly podcasts
- Weekly articles/blog posts
- Resource pages on all aspects of family building
Previous Episode
Adopting as a Single Parent
February 26, 2021
•56m
Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks!
What issues should you consider if you want to adopt as a single person? We talk with Susan Fremer, a licensed mental health intern and a single mom of five adopted girls; and Lee Varon, a LICSW specializing in adoptive parenting, a single mom to two sons through adoption, and author of two books on single parent adoption.
In this episode, we cover:
- Single parenting is common. Are there distinctions between becoming a single parent through divorce, conception, and adoption?
- How easy is it to adopt as a single woman or single man?
- Are there any additional requirements for single parents to be able to adopt? Any additional questions in the home study?
- Legal issues. Importance of a will and naming a guardian.
- What are some potential issues single parents should consider before they decide to adopt?
- Is there another single parent or family that you could partner with to provide mutual child care support either full time or babysitting type arrangement?
- Emotional support.
- Consider moving closer to family.
- Changes to your friend network after you become a parent.
- Finances.
- Costs for raising a child.
- Look at your debt.
- Will your housing have to change?
- Child care.
- May influence the age of child you decide to adopt.
- Finding the opposite gender role model for your child.
- Self-care.
- Dating.
- Are you ready to be a single parent?
- Are you ready to give up the fun parts of being child-free, like the freedom to do what you want when you want? The freedom to tackle a new time consuming work project, educational degree, hobby, travel, etc.
- Are you ready to feel the inevitable time crunch of single parenting?
- Are you ready financially?
- Annoying comments you may hear.
- You haven’t given enough time to finding a partner.
- Consider joining a single parent by choice support group. Online or in-person (check Meetup)
- Resources:
- Single Adoptive Parents: Our Stories (Book by Lee Varon and Sherry Fine)
- Adopting On Your Own: The Complete Guide to Adoption for Single Parents (Book by Lee Varon)
- Single Mothers By Choice (organization and website)
- Motherhood Reimagined (organization and website)
- ChoiceMom.org E-guide: Finding Support (eGuide)
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
· Weekly podcasts
· Weekly articles/blog posts
· Resource pages on all aspects of family building
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
- Weekly podcasts
- Weekly articles/blog posts
- Resource pages on all aspects of family building
Next Episode
Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks!
What do adoptive and foster parents need to know about the impacts of prenatal exposure to opioids, Suboxone, and Methadone. What are the risks to a baby born with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome or Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome (NOWS)? We talk with Dr. Julian Davies, a pediatrician at the University of Washington’s Center for Adoption Medicine and their FASD and Prenatal Exposure Clinic.
In this episode, we cover:
- What are opiates or opioids?
- What are the most common opiates that are being used during pregnancy?
- What are the most common non-opiate drugs that are being used by pregnant women?
- What are the common treatment medication/drugs given to those struggling with addiction who are trying to get off opioids? Methadone, Suboxone, and Subutex
- Are Methadone, Suboxone, and Subutex safe to use during pregnancy?
- What are the short- and long-term impacts on infants exposed to opiates?
- What are the short- and long-term impacts of infants exposed to Methadone in pregnancy?
- What are the short- and long-term impacts of infants exposed to Suboxone in pregnancy?
- Does the dosage of methadone or suboxone have an effect on the baby?
- What are the short- and long-term impacts of infants exposed to methamphetamines (meth) in pregnancy?
- What are the short- and long-term impacts of infants exposed to cocaine in pregnancy?
- What are the short- and long-term impacts of infants exposed to marijuana in pregnancy? Edible vs. smoking vs. vaping
- Does the timing of exposure in pregnancy affect the prognosis for the child? Is there a safer time for a fetus to be exposed to drugs in utero?
- Many parents believe that if the child is not born dependent or with drugs in their system that the prognosis is better. Or conversely, if the child is born dependent and has to go through withdrawals that they will suffer more impact from the in-utero drug exposure. Is this true?
- How serious is drug dependency and withdrawal for the infant?
- How is withdrawal treated in the infant? How is Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) and Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome (NOWS) treated in babies born dependent?
- Families that adopt out of state are often concerned about how soon they can travel home with their baby if she has been born dependent and is going through withdrawal.
- How long does withdrawal in an infant born dependent last?
- If a baby tests positive for opiates is it possible to determine what drug the baby has been exposed to? Does the long-term prognosis matter depending on which drug?
- How do you foster attachment while baby is suffering through withdrawal?
- How common is it for women who use drugs during their pregnancy to also drink excessively during their pregnancy?
- One thing you hear a lot is that “early intervention is key” and that a baby’s brain can be rewired during the first couple of years with the right therapy. What exactly does that therapy entail? Where can you find it? What strategies should you be using at home with your child with a diagnosis of prenatal drug exposure?
- There are many similarities between drug exposure and trauma in how it affects children’s learning, behavior, etc. When a child has both of those challenges, is it possible to tell the difference on what is causing specific problems, and is the treatment different depending on the cause?
- Are children who are exposed prenatally at a greater risk for drug abuse as teens and adults if they were adopted and not raised in an environment that exposed them to drug use?
- What are the most common blood borne diseases that women who use drugs are exposed to are more likely to have.
- What is the risk to a baby whose mother
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
- Weekly podcasts
- Weekly articles/blog posts
- Resource pages on all aspects of family building
If you like this episode you’ll love
Promoted