ABSTRACT
During early pregnancy, spotting, cramps or pain may be disregarded until considerable bleeding or expulsion raise the alarm. This denial could be due to emotional ambivalence about the pregnancy, ignorance or a hope that if she ignores it 'it will go away'. With threatened abortion or gradual and prolonged miscarriage, the hopeful woman reaches an emotional watershed, after which she hopes the fetus will be miscarried as she cannot believe it would be born healthy after all the pain and profuse loss of blood. Physical resorption of one twin means that a mother who has been expecting two babies, has also psychically to resorb the vanished twin and adjust to one rather than two babies. Even early miscarriage means that on some level, a bereaved woman is burying her hopes for a baby, losing trust in her body's reliability and her special connection to her partner's genetic being.
