Psychologist, Dr. Jessica Zucker had worked with many women grieving the loss of a pregnancy in her practice that specialised in women’s reproductive health. In 2012 however, she gained heartbreaking new insight into her patient’s experiences when she, herself, suffered a devastating miscarriage at four months.
She has since produced a series of condolence cards with a difference – cards created for couples who are grieving the loss of their unborn children. Jessica feels there is a strange cultural reluctance to speak about miscarriage, and so often people don’t know what to say to their friends and loved ones after a loss like this.
“I see these cards specifically as filling a sort of cultural conversation gap and a marketplace gap,” Jessica told Mashable. “The sympathy cards that do exist that relate to miscarriage and pregnancy loss are not resonant for me or people I know.”
With Jessica’s personal tragedy and the experience of many of her patients, she was able to create a series of sympathy cards that deal with the painful and hugely subjective emotions miscarriage can bring and will hopefully help to end the silence surrounding these events.
“That’s exactly why these cards need to exist right now… There’s a larger conversation about loss and grief that’s helping people feel less ashamed, less isolated, less afraid.”
It is estimated that 1 in 5 pregnancies ends in miscarriage while 1 in 160 ends in stillbirth and as Jessica says it is rarely spoken about openly despite it being such an unfortunately common experience.
Jessica describes how many people told her they “didn’t know what to say” and so stayed away, hopefully cards like these card will help to break the silence and in some small way help parents in their time of grief.
Visit Zucker’s Website for more information.
