Women’s experience of recurrent early pregnancy loss

There is a paucity of research which explores women's experience with recurrent early pregnancy loss. This grounded theory study explored, described, and explained the basic social psychological process of recurrent early pregnancy loss. This grounded theory study included 12 women who had experienced at least two consecutive early pregnancy losses. The data were collected by 18 unstructured tape-recorded interviews. Interviews were analysed using constant comparative analysis. The core category of the spiraling cycle of hope and loss emphasized the major behavioural and interactional variation within the process of recurrent early pregnancy loss. Six selective categories and their properties were related to the core category: cautious celebrating; losing the pregnancy; mourning the loss; searching and seeking; deciding what next; and hope. The findings indicated that the experience of recurrent early pregnancy loss is substantive in nature, and the women experienced a unique grieving process. Based on the findings of this study, the implications for nursing practice, education and research were identified in order to enable health care providers to formulate an effective therapeutic course of recovery and care for these women.Applied Science, Faculty ofNursing, School ofGraduat