Anticipatory grief
The five stages namely, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance proposed by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in her model of grief describe the process by which people undergo after a loss. Anxiety, dread, guilt, helplessness, hopelessness, and feelings of being overwhelmed are also common. However, it is important to note that anticipatory grief is not simply normal grief begun earlier.
Miscarriage and grief
Rituals that recognize the loss can be important in coping. Family and friends often conduct a memorial or burial service. Hospitals also can provide support and help memorialize the event. Depending on locale others desire to have a private ceremony. The religious faith of the woman and family impacts the grief process. Conversely, the lack of recognition that the miscarriage has occurred by family and friends can be troubling and add to the trauma of the event.
Grieving after the loss of a child through miscarriage in other cultures can vary from western culture. An individual’s culture plays a large role in determining an inappropriate pattern of grief, and it is appropriate to take into account cultural norms before reaching a complicated grief diagnosis. There are cultural differences in emotional levels, how these are expressed and how long they are expressed. External symptoms of grief differ in non-Western cultures, presenting increased somatization. Narratives by Swedish women include their own perception of losing a child. Investigations describe their grief over their miscarriage: "When miscarriage occurs it is not a gore, an embryo, or a fetus they lose, it is their child. They feel that they are the cause of the miscarriage through something they have done, eaten, or thought. They feel abandonment and they grieve for their profound loss; they are actually in bereavement." Native American women have cut their long hair following the death of a family member. The narratives of women tend to coincide with quantified and measurable effects. In women who are induced to have an abortion, an identical grieving process can occur. The emotional responses to a spontaneous abortion (miscarriage) and an elective abortion are sometimes identical. Spanish women experience grief in much the same way in the rest of Western culture. Some women find online forums helpful.