ABSTRACT
An interesting contribution shows how post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is prevalent in pregnancies following stillbirth. Women were found to be vulnerable to PTSD in the pregnancy subsequent to stillbirth, particularly where conception occurs soon after the loss. A pregnancy or a birth following a miscarriage are not necessarily helpful in processing the grief, and the complexity of the reaction to a loss of this nature cannot be simplistically resolved by a new conception. 'Pregnancy, particularly the first pregnancy, is a crisis point in the search for a female identity, for it is a point of no return, whether a baby is born at the end of term or whether the pregnancy ends in abortion or miscarriage'. Miscarriage can be experienced as an emotional earthquake which deeply undermines the confidence at the heart of women's identities and, therefore, their creative capacity.
