Medical Reviewer
Amelia Swanson, PhD, is a licensed psychologist specializing in women’s reproductive health. She is the owner of Health Psychology Associates of Illinois, PLLC, and a Health System Clinician in the Department of Psychiatry at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, where she provides consultation as well as individual and couples psychotherapy related to infertility and other reproductive concerns. After earning her doctorate, Dr. Swanson completed postdoctoral training in integrated primary care across the lifespan at Harvard Medical School/Cambridge Health Alliance in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 2016, Dr. Swanson joined the faculty at University of Massachusetts Medical School/UMASS Memorial Medical Center as an attending Health Psychologist on the Consultation/Liaison service. She provided treatment to patients across two hospitals and taught psychology and medical trainees about psychological aspects of complex medical issues. In 2023, Dr. Swanson started her own psychology private practice and continues to support patients coping with fertility issues. Dr. Swanson also conducts research on the psychological aspects of medical issues, with a particular focus on how patients are resilient in the face of medical challenges such as infertility and find meaning and purpose in their life while struggling with infertility.
Grief is a natural and common reaction to all kinds of loss; this includes the loss of or the threat of losing the chance to have children when diagnosed with infertility. Grief involves several emotional reactions to loss such as negative thoughts, a change in behaviors (e.g., difficulty sleeping), conflicting feelings, and challenging interpersonal experiences such as difficulty attending baby showers or other child-focused activities.
Grief related to infertility affects many areas of a person’s life. Infertility-related grief can include sadness, anger, anxiety, shock, feeling invisible, feeling like no one understands your experience, emotional numbness, loneliness, and/or difficulty engaging in daily life.i Fertility issues can also impact self-esteem.ii,iii Although infertility-related grief can sometimes be long-lasting, feelings of grief generally decrease over time.
Pregnancy loss is a relatively common, often heartbreaking outcome of pregnancy. Statistics on the prevalence of pregnancy loss are variable, though estimates suggest that between 10-30 percent of pregnancies will result in a miscarriage.i,ii,iii,iv The chance of miscarriage increases based on age and other factors.v Between 0.2-2.78 percent of pregnancies worldwide will end with stillbirth, which is the loss of a baby after 20 weeks' gestation (24 weeks is the cut-off definition for stillbirth in some regions).vi,vii,viii Fewer than 0.3 percent of infants die before their first birthday in Western nations.ix,x
While losses may be common, each loss is unique, and each person will experience loss differently. The journey through grief can feel lonely, but there are things that can help people navigate towards healing.
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