A new range of cards have been released for women who have experienced a miscarriage - and they're perfect
You might not have noticed it, but until recently, there was a huge gap in the market when it came to greetings cards. Sure, there are cards for birthdays, cards for fathers' days and cards for when you've finally packed the contents of your wardrobe up into 18 bin liners and moved into a house that smells of damp.
But, when you think about it, those are all situations when you can call each other up, and have a nice chat over the phone. And there still aren't any cards for the situations when you really, really need cards. The times when you don't know the right words to say, and you're not sure if the person you want to say them to would even hear them if you did.
Until now. Because clinical psychologist Jessica Zucker PHD has released a range of cards she's designed to be given to women following a miscarriage.
'As a psychologist who specializes in women’s reproductive and maternal mental health, I hear countless heartbreaking stories from women struggling to get pregnant, coping with perinatal anxiety, grieving miscarriages, contemplating terminating pregnancies and weathering postpartum mood and anxiety disorders,' Jessica explains. '[Then one day while I was] pregnant for the second time, I miscarried at 16 weeks. After a day of bewildering bleeding and foreboding cramps, the baby emerged in the bathroom while I was home alone. I found myself in a psychological haze of despair that is still in the process of lifting from my psyche. One day obviously pregnant, the next I was a deflated, empty vessel.'
With slogans ranging from the supportive ("I'm here, always") right through to the angry ("fuck loss"), they confront the idea that miscarriage is something women should deal with privately, and underline the fact that sometimes friendship just involves being there. They're sympathetic without being condescending, and there's no bullshit sentiments to make you throw up in your mouth and / or bang your head on your desk.
And they're perfect.
