Miscarriage: The Nurse's Role In The Nursing Act

Art & science

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The synthesis of art and science is lived by the nurse in the nursing act

Josephine G Paterson

Emotional care for women who experience miscarriage
Evans R (2012) Emotional care for women who experience miscarriage. Nursing Standard. 26, 42, 35-41. Date of acceptance: February 28 2012.

Abstract
Sensitive, caring and skilled nursing care for women experiencing miscarriage plays a crucial role in their long-term emotional recovery. For some women, miscarriage is a traumatic life event and may even be regarded as the most painful form of bereavement. However, miscarriage is often not viewed by society as a bereavement.
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Miscarriage occurs in around 10-20% of clinical pregnancies and accounts for 50,000 inpatient admissions to hospitals in the uK annually (royal college of obstetricians and gynaecologists (rcog) 2006). Miscarriage is defined as ‘the unintended end of a pregnancy before a fetus can survive outside of the mother, which is recognised as being before the 20th week of gestation’ (rcog 2006). Physical recovery from miscarriage is usually uncomplicated and uneventful, and nursing staff may regard it as a relatively minor and commonplace complication (adolfsson et al 2004, Murphy and Merrell 2009). However, the emotional effect of miscarriage is often extremely distressing, and may include depression and feelings of guilt for women and their families (rcog 2006, Brier 2008, Bacidore et al 2009). The relationship between the attitudes of nursing staff and the successful physical and emotional recovery of women whose pregnancy has failed is well documented (corbett-owen and Kruger 2001, adolfsson et al 2004, chan and arthur 2009, Murphy and Philpin 2010). The intense feelings of grief some women experience may also affect those caring for them. nurses may find themselves simultaneously providing physical and emotional care for the woman, while having to deal with their own emotional responses to the situation (McQueen
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