Dr. Jessica Zucker is a well-known psychologist who specializes in women’s reproductive and maternal mental health, the founder of the ‘I Had a Miscarriage’ campaign, and a writer. She practiced clinically for years before her own 16-week miscarriage offered her a new perspective on the many aspects of loss and how it touches every part of a woman’s life.

During our conversation, Dr. Zucker shares the raw details of her loss, how getting intimate with death changed her and made her more emotionally available to her patients, why she created the ‘I Had a Miscarriage’ campaign and her fears about getting pregnant again.

October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month, and we hope that this powerful conversation helps create more space and openness between those who have experienced loss and those who haven’t. We believe that open dialogue in our culture is rare but so needed - especially in this incredibly misunderstood arena.

In This Episode:

• How modern psychology was originally designed for men as a moral development tool
• How mental health professionals can offer assistance to others even if they haven’t had a similar experience
• The physical realities of a pregnancy loss
• How she considers her loss an unforeseeable gift
• Why some women choose not to share their stories of loss
• How the trauma of loss appears in many different areas of a woman’s life
• What it’s like to have an unmedicated D&C procedure
• Discussing psychologists ability to apply their knowledge to themselves
• The dangers of walking on eggshells when discussing pregnancy loss
• If the ‘12-week rule’ is appropriate advice for doctors to relay
• How to get a free 1-month trial of guided meditations through Expectful

Show Notes:

Dr. Jessica Zucker
@Ihadamiscarriage on Instagram
Expectful — 1 Month Free Trial for MotherBirth Community Members