Pregnancy After a Loss: A Guide to Pregnancy after a Miscarriage, Stillbirth, or Infant Death

by Carol Cirulli Lanham

Book Overview

For a woman who has experienced a miscarriage, stillbirth, or the death of an infant, conceiving another child can be fraught with mixed emotions. This guide, filled with up-to-date medical information and written by a woman who herself experienced a successful pregnancy after the loss of her first baby, can help women cope with their anxiety. It offers guidance for women asking such questions as: Why did it happen--and how can I make sure it doesn't...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0425170470
• ISBN13: 9780425170472
• Release Date: October 1999
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.6" x 9.4"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 12 and higher

Customer Reviews

Pregnancy After A Loss

I recently reread this book before recommending it to couples I had counseled following their pregnancy losses. Six years after its publication, Carol Cirulli Lanham's book still speaks with immediacy and compassion, guiding parents through the agonizing process of mourning their previous loss, contemplating a new baby and coping with an always anxiety provoking subsequent pregnancy. My only suggestion for improvement, in what I hope will be a new edition some day, is the inclusion of an index to help guide readers to specific topics. Otherwise, this book provides couples with support and hope as they face a difficult period in their lives, a situation which only people who have been there can truly understand.

Excellent reading

My husband and I just experienced having a stillborn baby and we decided we would like to try again soon. After reading many books about grieving after a loss, which only had, at most, a chapter on the subject of trying again, I got this book. It was helpful for me because it discusses the issues of the future, rather than the past. I found it surprisingly thorough on the problems that had caused our baby to die. Giving both discriptions of the problems and what could be done about them next time around.The book follows the timeline of pregnancy from the perspective of the reader who has had a loss, and gives information and suggestions for both medical and emotional issues. It starts out with dicussing the problems of the last pregnancy (with a warning not to read those sections that don't pertain to you!), and moves onto recommendations for second opinions and then into the trimesters of pregnancy. It give specific descriptions of tests and therapies that the doctor might prescribe. It is most helpful when discussing options with your doctor that you know the meaning of all the jargon before you start.Because of this book, I have been much more savvy in dealing with my health care. I have gotten second opinions that my doctor didn't think to recommend. It has also prepared me more fully for my next pregnancy, which, I now realize, will be a lot more difficult emotionally than the first.

Pregnancy After a Loss: A Guide to Pregnancy After a Miscar

I wish I'd had this outstanding book when I was going through my subsequent pregnancy. This book addresses many concerns specific to women experiencing a subsequent pregnancy. Many of the issues that came up in my Subsequent Pregnancy After A Loss Support Group were touched on, including the desire for a child of a particular sex (either the same or different than the child you lost) and the need for more frequent monitoring during pregnancy. This book is well-organized and follows the three-trimester framework of most other pregnancy guides. However, the discussion of each trimester focuses on how women experience their pregnancy when they have suffered a loss in the past. Most meaningful to me as a mother who lost twins, this book addresses the feelings of mothers who lost multiple pregnancies and are now pregnant with a single child. I would recommend this book to any woman who is pregnant following a miscarriage, stillbirth, or the death of a baby.

The most informative and inspirational book- a must have!

This book truly is for anyone who has suffered a pregnancy loss and is about to go through a subsequent pregnancy or is contemplating one. This book is full of stories of women, including the author, who have suffered through different kinds of pregnancy loss and have then gone on to give birth to healthy babies. After recently suffering a stillbirth, I had so many questions running through my head. Some of them being, What caused my baby to die?, Will I ever give birth to a healthy baby?, How will I ever make it through another pregnancy, Am I the only woman who has ever suffered this much pain?, How can I keep the memory alive of the baby I lost?, these are just a few examples. This book helps to answer so many of these questions. It is a very informative book because there is also so much helpful information on choosing a new doctor or keeping your old one, Questions to ask your doctor, how to decide if you are ready for a subsequent pregnancy or not, and some possible causes of pregnancy loss that sometimes go undetected. A section is also written on what to expect emotionally and physically during the three trimesters of a subsequent pregnancy and what can be done to help make it a little easier. Suffering a pregnancy loss is an extremely devastating, painful and scary time. Carol Cirulli Lanham has given me the inspiration, hope and courage to want to try again. She truly understands and you will feel her compassion and determination as you read this book. I have read it three times already and will always have it on hand. I have read many books on pregnancy loss and none of them compare to this one. Thank you Carol!

This book-unlike others-really spoke to how I was feeling.

I had to write this review. If one grieving parent sees how it made me feel and decides to try this book, then I will feel like I've helped to pass it on. Ms. Lanham's conversation style was just what I needed. She covers each stage of pregnancy loss and the decision to try again by interviewing dozens of women who suffered miscarriages, preterm or term births. She presents differing opinions in an objective, yet compassionate manner. (For example: How and when to tell people that you're pregnant again after your loss). She is not preachy, but lets the interviews speak for themselves. Several times, I felt like exclaiming, "Yes! That's how I felt, too!" The book discusses both the practical and emotional implications of getting pregnant again after a loss, and doesn't overdramatize or underestimate the range of feelings we will have during this trying time. This practical, yet heartfelt treatise helped Ms. Lanham with her loss (and subsequent successful pregnancies), and it is helping me, too.