Suffering a miscarriage is an incredibly traumatic life experience that can only be fully understood by people who've experienced it. Because of this, we don't always know quite what to say to a friend or family member who is recovering from one – or worse still, we say something that's meant to be sympathetic, but ends up becoming triggering.
To help make this very distressing situation a little easier, The Miscarriage Association has created a range of empathy cards for women and men who are going through a miscarriage.
The range of four cards – which contain messages such as "There's no good card for this. I'm so sorry for your loss" – has been approved by a panel of women who have themselves experienced miscarriage.
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Ruth Bender Atik, national director of the Miscarriage Association, said of the empathy cards: "Shockingly, greetings card retailers stock a card for almost every important life event, except one. These cards recognise miscarriage, and give words to those friends and loved ones who can’t find them.
"Losing a pregnancy is heart-breaking and can be very lonely. Close family and friends often don’t know what to say, say the wrong thing, or just say nothing at all. The new cards have been launched to fill that gap. They may even become a treasured memento, the acknowledgement of the briefest of lives."
The miscarriage empathy cards are available now at Postmark's London stores and online, and Postmark is donating all proceeds from them to The Miscarriage Association.
Natasha Necati, a woman who has gone through eight miscarriages, said of the cards: “When I had my miscarriages, people meant to be kind, but I did have comments like ‘Sorry for your loss, but at least you know you can get pregnant’ and ‘Don’t worry, you’re still young,’ whereas others just didn’t say anything at all.
“I would have loved to receive cards like these. I especially like the one that says 'I wish this wasn’t happening to you. I don’t know what to say. But I promise I am here for you'. It says it all.”