Men experience the same feelings of grief and bereavement as women do when their partners have a miscarriage, a new study has found. Eithne Donnellan, Health Correspondent, reports.
The research, carried out at Dublin's Rotunda Hospital, also found that while men felt support services for their partners were adequate following miscarriage, they themselves felt excluded.
Although one in five pregnancies end in miscarriage, research up to this, according to the study published in the latest edition of the Irish Medical Journal, has generally focused on the emotional consequences for women, with little done to assess the impact on men.
"Now with changes in society, men are involved more in parenting and this has resulted in a new previously unrecognised emotional need in the case of early pregnancy loss. Moreover, with the introduction of routine ultrasound scanning in obstetric practice the expectant fathers may also develop early bonding," it said.
The researchers looked at the experiences of 10 couples seen at the Rotunda who suffered a miscarriage in 2002. The average age of the men was 28 years and none were satisfied with the level of support and information received from hospital staff at the time of the miscarriage.
The majority experienced feelings of uncertainty and sadness at the time of the miscarriage and six weeks later some were still experiencing sadness, emptiness and even depression.