Thinking near pregnancy afterward the death of your infant

KEY POINTS

  • When your baby dies, you may accept mixed feelings about getting significant over again. Take time to decide when you desire to get pregnant once again.

  • Your body needs time to recover betwixt pregnancies. Talk to your provider about long how to look before you try to get pregnant once more.

  • Get a preconception checkup earlier you get pregnant to help make sure you're healthy when you lot go significant.

  • Just because y'all've had a baby die doesn't hateful it will happen in your next pregnancy.

What if y'all have mixed feelings well-nigh getting meaning once again?

If your baby died during pregnancy or after birth, you may accept mixed feelings about getting meaning once again. You may want to get pregnant once again right way, or you may desire to wait a while. Getting pregnant may make you feel like you lot're moving on toward something good. But y'all may still feel lamentable and miss your infant. You lot may feel guilty and worry almost forgetting the babe who died. You may experience scared that if y'all go pregnant again, the new infant may die, too. It's OK to feel all of these ways.

Talk to your partner most your feelings. Your partner may feel differently than you do about getting pregnant again. Share your worries and concerns with each other. Y'all and your partner are the only ones who can decide what's right for you.

Y'all may want to share your feelings with other people, including:

  • Your family
  • Your friends
  • Your health care provider
  • A counselor
  • Other parents whose infant has died. Visit shareyourstory.org, the March of Dimes online community where families who take lost a baby tin talk to and comfort each other.

How long should you wait before trying to get significant once again?

This is a conclusion for you to make with your partner and your provider. When to endeavour again depends on a few things, like:

  • Giving your torso fourth dimension to recover earlier your next pregnancy
  • Being emotionally ready to try again
  • Giving yourself time to grieve for your baby

Talk to your provider about how long to expect before y'all effort to get pregnant again. If your baby died during pregnancy and you're having tests to find out more than nearly what happened, yous may need to await until you've had the tests earlier y'all kickoff trying to become pregnant again. If you've had a miscarriage, it'southward usually OK to go pregnant again afterward you've had at to the lowest degree i normal period. Every state of affairs is different, and you tin can decide the right timing for you and your family.

For near women younger than 35 who haven't had a miscarriage or stillbirth, it's best to wait at to the lowest degree 18 months (ane½ years) from the terminate of one pregnancy before getting pregnant again. This gives your body time to recover before your adjacent pregnancy.

What can you do before you become pregnant again to help you have a healthy pregnancy adjacent fourth dimension?

The best thing yous tin do to help y'all have a healthy pregnancy next time is to take good care of yourself. Here's what you can do to assistance you lot get good for you before your next pregnancy:

  • Get a preconception checkup. This is a medical checkup you go before pregnancy to assist make sure you're healthy when you get meaning.
  • Take a multivitamin every solar day with 400 micrograms of folic acid in it. Folic acid is a vitamin that every cell in your trunk needs for good for you growth and evolution. If you take it before pregnancy and during early pregnancy, it tin aid protect your infant from birth defects of the brain and spine called neural tube defects, birth defects of the mouth called cleft lip and palate and some center defects. Birth defects are health weather condition that are present at birth. They change the shape or function of one or more parts of the torso. Birth defects tin can cause issues in overall health, how the torso develops or how the body works.
  • Go to a healthy weight. Eat healthy foods and do something active every day. Talk to your provider about the correct weight for you.
  • Don't smoke, drink booze or employ harmful drugs. Talk to your provider if y'all demand assistance to quit.

Do you have a medical condition that may affect your side by side pregnancy?

Some medical weather condition tin cause problems during pregnancy. At your preconception checkup, talk to your health intendance provider about:

  • Your pregnancy history. Tell your provider nigh what happened in your previous pregnancy. Your provider may be able to tell you why your last babe died and if information technology could happen once more. There may exist things you and your provider tin can practise to assistance prevent problems that tin affect your infant.
  • Your family health history. This is a record of any wellness conditions and treatments that you, your partner and everyone in your families have had. Some of these conditions may affect your pregnancy. If certain conditions run in your family, your provider may suggest that you meet with a genetic counselor. This person is trained to help you sympathise about genes, birth defects and other medical atmospheric condition that run in families, and how they can touch on your health and your baby'due south health.
  • Health weather condition you have, similar depression, diabetes or high blood pressure. Depression is a medical condition in which strong feelings of sadness last for a long time and interfere with your daily life. Diabetes is when you accept too much saccharide (chosen blood sugar or glucose) in your claret. Too much claret saccharide can impairment organs in your body, including blood vessels, fretfulness, optics and kidneys. High blood pressure (also called hypertension) is when the force of blood confronting the walls of your blood vessels is too high. Getting treatment for conditions like these before you get pregnant can assistance you have a healthier pregnancy.
  • Medicines you take. Your provider can tell you which medicines are safe to have during pregnancy. Tell her about whatsoever medicine you take, including prescription medicine, over-the-counter medicine, supplements and herbal products.

How tin can you manage the stress of trying to become pregnant once again?

Stress is worry, strain or force per unit area that you experience in response to things that happen in your life. Trying to get meaning again afterwards a baby'due south death may be really stressful for you. You may feel worried that your adjacent baby will dice, likewise. Yous may feel pressure to get pregnant again before you're ready. You lot may be angry that you take to go through pregnancy once more. Here are some things you tin can practice to assist manage stress you may feel nearly getting meaning once more:

  • Talk to your partner and to people who care about you. Tell them how y'all're feeling about getting pregnant again.
  • Remember that every pregnancy and baby are different. Simply because you've had a baby die doesn't mean information technology will happen in your next pregnancy.
  • Talk to your provider or a counselor about ways to reduce your stress. If you work, talk to your boss nearly how to reduce the stress at your job.
  • Go to your preconception checkup to make sure y'all're good for you. Being good for you when y'all get meaning can assistance y'all have a healthy pregnancy.
  • Consume healthy foods, drink lots of water and do something agile every day. Try to get a full night's slumber every night.
  • Don't smoke, potable alcohol or utilize harmful drugs.

More data

  • From hurt to healing (free booklet from the March of Dimes for grieving parents)
  • Share Your Story (March of Dimes online community for families to share experiences with prematurity, nativity defects or loss)
  • Centering Corporation (grief information and resource)
  • Middle for Loss in Multiple Birth, Inc. (for families who have lost a multiple)
  • Empathetic Friends (support for families afterward the death of a child)
  • Beginning Candle (support for families with children who died of SIDS or preventable stillbirth)
  • International Stillbirth Alliance
  • Perinatal Hospice & Palliative Care (for parents who detect out during pregnancy that their baby has a life-limiting status )
  • Share Pregnancy & Infant Loss Support (resources for families with pregnancy or infant loss)
  • Star Legacy Foundation (support for families who accept had a stillbirth)

Terminal reviewed: March, 2019