An online miscarriage support group can help you connect with others who share in your pregnancy loss experience, especially during a time of forced isolation, such as a pandemic. Suffering a loss such as a miscarriage is traumatic and life-changing, no matter when it happens.
Jump ahead to these sections:
- What Happens in an Online Miscarriage Support Group?
- What to Look for in an Online Miscarriage Support Group
- Popular Online Miscarriage Support Groups
As a result, more and more people turn to the internet for help and support through these types of virtual connections. They are many websites to turn to for grief support for parents who have lost a child. Although most of them are geared toward the parent who carried the child, some support groups specifically cater to men and other partners who are coping with miscarriage grief.
Finding the right groups to fit your specific needs takes a little time and research to get to know the individual communities out there. However, once you find the exact fit, the benefits from the support you’ll receive from your online community are endless.
What Happens in an Online Miscarriage Support Group?
Following a miscarriage, it can be challenging to go back to functioning in everyday life. Depression and other grief-related symptoms sometimes prevent you from moving through your suffering.
Miscarriage support groups can help you connect with others who share your pregnancy loss experience. The toll grief takes on your mental health will need attention. It's not unusual to experience depression and anxiety for several months afterward due to the trauma suffered from a miscarriage.
Online miscarriage support groups connect you with other parents who have suffered through a similar experience as yours. This type of connectivity to others who understand your grief is essential, especially as some medical professionals may not be equipped to handle the emotions that a person experiences following a miscarriage. Also, society does not typically recognize pregnancy loss, making the experience all that more isolating.
When connecting with others through online miscarriage support groups, you can expect to:
- Connect with others who shared your experience
- Find a haven to openly talk about your loss
- Seek advice and recommendations on how to cope with your loss
- Obtain more information on miscarriage
- Get relief from some or all of the emotional trauma of the experience
There are many benefits to joining an online miscarriage support group. These can include the following:
- having someone else to talk to that understands your grief
- getting recommendations for mental health counselors and therapists experienced in dealing with pregnancy loss related grief symptoms
- learning about which books about miscarriage to read.
What to Look for in an Online Miscarriage Support Group
Most online grief support groups for pregnancy loss serve a limited but powerful purpose. Pregnancy loss is not an easy subject to discuss with others, especially those who have never experienced this type of loss. Many people do not understand the depths of despair suffered after pregnancy loss.
You may hear well-intentioned friends and family can so you by saying things like, "You're still young and can try again," or "It just wasn't meant to be." Well-meaning folks fail to realize that statements like these are hurtful and can deepen a grieving parent's sorrow.
When looking for an online miscarriage support group, try to vet several until you find the one that most aligns with your type of loss. Look for things such as the bereaved parents' gender and age group and whether they have a moderator. A moderated group is the key to getting the most out of an online support group.
A moderator will keep the conversation flowing positively and monitor when hurtful things are posted or are out of topic. Once you find the online community that you're most comfortable with, give them a try for a few days to see if they're the right fit for you.
If you find that the particular group doesn't suit your needs, it's okay to move on to the next one. You don't need to offer any excuses or explanations when exiting a group.
Here are some other things to look for when selecting a group that's right for you:
- The cost to join and participate
- If/when the group meets
- How many people can join
- Can you post anonymously
- Whether participation is encouraged
Popular Online Miscarriage Support Groups
There are many online miscarriage support groups that you can join. Some are more popular than others. Their general popularity is ranked according to the number of participants who engage within the online community, their experiences within the group, and the information that's readily shared with members of the group by the participants, moderators, or website creators.
Other factors that individual participants deem to be important to them in their grief journey can be found online in the reviews of the group.
The following is a list of some of the more popular groups found online:
1. Postpartum.net
Postpartum is a website that is a go-to portal for any person suffering from postpartum depression and other related mental health issues. One of the most relevant sections of this website is the pregnancy and infant loss support group.
This group is available to all grieving parents, especially those who carried the child. Unfortunately, the support group isn't open to other grieving parents who did not carry the child.
The website doesn't offer any alternatives for men who are suffering as a result of pregnancy loss. It does, however, provide other postpartum mental health issue support and resources for men.
2. Miscarriageformen.com
Miscarriage for men is a support network of men who've experienced the loss of a child through miscarriage. It was founded by a man who was grieving his spouse's pregnancy loss and found it nearly impossible to find miscarriage grief support networks geared toward men. He developed this site for men to find the help they need and includes resources for grieving a child's loss, specifically due to miscarriage.
The links and resources provided help men understand miscarriage more fully to come to terms with their baby's loss. The website includes a blog that addresses a man's unique way of grieving without sugar-coating or skipping over some of the most critical parts of a man's grief Journey.
Here you can find directional guidance and support for men who suffer in silence. It offers them a refuge to voice their fears while supporting each other as they struggle to cope with loss. The website's structure allows men to share their experiences and get the help they need either anonymously or publicly.
This relatively new website shares links to outside resources, advice columns, and blogs. It also has chat support and a forum where men who are suffering can meet other grieving men in an online support group setting.
3. Glowinthewoods.com
Glow in the Woods provides a safe space for bereaved parents to come together to talk about their loss. It's a place that encourages openness and the display of raw emotion. They have a discussion forum open to everyone who has shared the experience of losing a child to miscarriage and other forms of death.
They also invite their guests to be a guest blogger and contribute their stories of how they got through their pain and suffering following their child's loss. What's unique about this particular website is that it is open to all people equally.
The resources they provide include bereaved fathers and mothers alike, where many of the other support groups focus primarily on the mother's grief.
4. Facebook.com/miscarriage
Miscarriage is a Facebook online community focusing on supporting bereaved parents who are grieving due to pregnancy loss. This online community has seen almost 150,000 participants through the years, beginning in 2010. This group offers support for bereaved parents suffering through miscarriage, stillbirth, and neonatal death.
Participation provides respite for people who are grieving the loss of their child. As with most types of grief communities, you can expect members to come and go.
Usually, these types of groups are valuable for a season in a person's life, and then they move on as they work through their grief, leaving the door open for new members to share their experiences.
5. Compassionatefriends.org
The Compassionate Friends offers a variety of private online Facebook support groups for those who are grieving. The groups are moderated by volunteers who have experienced a similar type of loss as the group that they oversee. Membership is limited to those who request to join a particular group and approved by the moderator.
Aside from gaining access to bereavement support and learning how to create a miscarriage memorial, The Compassionate Friends network is one of the mainstays in online grief support.
Two groups, in particular, are dedicated to helping grieving parents who have lost a child to miscarriage. The first one is Is called Loss to Miscarriage or Stillbirth, and the second one is Miscarriage, Stillbirth, Loss of an Infant Grandchild.
Here are the links to each below:
Connecting to Online Miscarriage Support Groups
Learning how to grieve and holding on to hope are two of the mainstays in dealing with miscarriage and pregnancy loss. Processing your grief is a highly intimate and often isolating journey.
Connecting with others who have shared your experiences helps validate your loss and grief. Recovering physically and emotionally following a miscarriage takes time and patience. It's important to give yourself time to mourn your loss and come to terms with the experience.