| It is estimated that one in four of all clinically recognized pregnancies will end in miscarriage (Lerner, 2003; Rai & Regan, 2006). The medical community considers miscarriage to be the most common complication of pregnancy (Rai & Regan, 2006). Today, more women are choosing to delay childbearing (Mathews & Hamilton, 2009) and the risk of miscarriage increases with maternal age (Balasch & Gratacos, 2011; Garmel, 2002). Although it has been well documented that miscarriage is a relatively common pregnancy outcome and more likely to happen among women aged 35 years and older, very little research has been conducted on the quality of such a lived experience. Given that, this qualitative study explores the essence of the experience of miscarriage among women aged 35 years and older. Concepts from Ambiguous Loss Theory and Feminist Theory guide this study, with the Human Ecological Model situating the experience within various levels of context. A Transcendental Phenomenological approach, as specified by Moustakas (1994) is utilized to analyze the content of 10 in-depth participant interviews. The salient themes identified suggest that women experience miscarriage from a physical, emotional, temporal and social context. From these themes of experience, the essence of miscarriage for the participants in this study were found to be 1) physically experiencing intense loss and grief, 2) having a sense of otherness, 3) a continuous search for meaning and 4) feelings of regret and self-blame. Clinical implications are provided, as well as future research directions as pertaining to the phenomena and limitations to this study. |
