Every year, 26,000 babies are stillborn in America. In 2003, one of them was my son.

Monday, May 3, 2010

Study Finds Couples More Likely to Break Up After Pregnancy Loss

Well, duh.

A study from the University of Michigan discovered that yes, couples who lose a baby are highly likely to break up. Not really new or startling, but I suppose we can be grateful someone is drawing attention to that fact. This is the link to the study and a few paragraphs from the press release:

"ANN ARBOR, Mich. - Couples are more likely to break up after the loss of a pregnancy and unmarried couples are at even higher risk, according to new Universityof Michigan Health System research published today.

The study published in the journal Pediatrics is the first national study to look at the effect of pregnancy loss—by miscarriage or stillbirth--on relationship outcomes. It’s also the first to establish that parental relationships have a higher risk of dissolving after miscarriage or stillbirth compared to those who have a live birth.

Over a 15-year period, couples who miscarried had a 22 percent higher risk of experiencing a break-up while couples who experienced a stillbirth had a 40 percent higher risk of their relationship ending. For a miscarriage, the risk persists up to three years after the loss. For stillbirths, it persists up to nine years after the loss, according to research data."

I know my marriage suffered greatly after Ben died--we almost didn't survive his death. What was your experience? Did your marriage suffer as a result, or bring you closer?

1 comment:

Monica H said...

Well duh. That's what I said too. ha ha!

We almost didn't survive. I think a lot of has to do with the fact that we greived differently and it seemed we were on different paths. It seemed as if we couldn't comfort eachother and we didn't understand what each of us was going through--even though we both experienced the same loss!

I think we realized we were in trouble and sought out help. The therapist told us that he couldn't fix us and there was nothing he could do for us. WE had to do the work. I think when we realized that if we didn't communicate with eachother and we didn't get back to our original love, we wouldn't make it. that was not an option and our marriage couldn't be stronger than it is now. But it was tough.