Spontaneous Abortion And Habitual Miscarriage. Psychosomatics

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

About six years ago, when I worked as a psychosomatics consultant in the field of obstetrics and gynecology, I was offered to broaden my horizons to lead planning, pregnant and young mothers on one of the well-known resources on the Internet. The administration, realizing the complexity and risks of public discussions, created an opportunity for anonymous counseling, but behind the usual endometriosis and polycystic disease, suddenly requests with “miscarriage” and so on fell on my personal address. The publicity of anonymous consultations was one of the main conditions, so I immediately refused in personal correspondence, until the abundance of requests made me doubt it, and I decided to find out the real reason why the existing anonymity was not enough for them.

The answer of almost each of the girls who applied was as follows: “Despite the fact that the section is anonymous, we communicate here on different topics and they can recognize me by the details of my personal life, which you will probably ask about. I trust girls, but on a forum where everyone is discussing the joy of motherhood, I am ashamed to discuss that I provoked a miscarriage with my thoughts - I myself “killed” my child”. If your hair began to move, then you understand how I felt, reading each of these letters. Perhaps it also became one of the building blocks in the wall of my prejudices regarding the popular psychosomatics and the destructive effect of the phrase "all diseases are from the brain." But closer to the topic.

In the literature on the work of a psychologist in gynecological practice, the theory of psychoanalyst Deutsch and his followers is indeed mentioned that miscarriages can be considered as a psychosomatic resolution of the conflict between the problems of femininity and motherhood. But, the fact is that in the same literature, this theory is given a place as hard to prove and destructive … Whether this could be due to the fact that Deutsch was a man, I don't know. However, in practice, about 94% of planning and pregnant women experience psychological difficulties in connection with issues of future parenting (including motherhood and femininity), and only 16% of pregnancies end in spontaneous abortion, of these average 16%, only 23% - 48% do not due to organic reasons (trauma, endocrine disorders, infections, genetic characteristics, etc.). But most importantly, about 18% of desired, planned, and nurtured pregnancies end in spontaneous abortion. In simple terms, the likelihood that an unresolved conflict between motherhood and femininity can be the cause of a spontaneous miscarriage is very, very low.… According to statistics.

According to popular psychosomatics, when we say "The psychosomatics of spontaneous abortion", a picture is immediately drawn in the head of many that the psychotherapist will now offer a list of attitudes, thoughts, reasons and actions that a young mother could provoke a "miscarriage". Unfortunately or fortunately, in reality there is no such list. But belief in this list can significantly affect the outcome of subsequent pregnancies. Let me remind you that in fact, the term "psychosomatics" does not mean at all that all diseases have some kind of psychological cause. Psychosomatics is an indication that the mental and physical interact equally and mutually influence each other, no more, no less.

When a future mother has an arbitrary abortion for the first time, most often she plunges into the process of grief, part of which, at a certain stage, is the search for reasons, the search for those responsible for what happened, the search for signs and other answers to various "why and why" questions …This arises for the simple reason that we cannot come to terms with the fact that death (loss) is not subject to us, and the psyche is trying to find reasons to try to prevent loss in the future, avoid it, and maybe even outwit … are not found, "psychosomatics", along with "Divine" motives, becomes the last hope of the psychic, in an attempt to control death.

In his book about loss, priest B. Dates wrote how difficult it is for people to accept and understand that God is merciful and he does not "punish people with loss, for anything" and does not "take the best to himself, pulling one by one" … All these are the words of people who cannot come to terms with the fact that death is not under their control and that they are not omnipotent. In psychosomatics it is equal to understand that there is no such thought that can simply take and take the life of another person … And, probably, one of the tasks of such grief lies precisely in the fact that it is important for a woman who is preparing to be a mother to realize that she is not omnipotent, and no matter how she tries, there are and always will be things and situations that we cannot provide and monitor.

As a specialist in psychosomatics, it is difficult for me to name the psychological reasons that can provoke an arbitrary abortion or intrauterine death of a child. During the management of pregnant women (and there were more than 80 cases in which someone just needed to be referred to a doctor on time, and someone needed to be led for a year or more), there were completely different situations and reasons that could contribute to a spontaneous abortion. Indeed, in the psychological aspect, anything can provoke an arbitrary abortion, from a situational stressful situation (shock, fright, etc.) to simply reasons and meanings that are inexplicable and not given to a person in experience (the usual medical words "spontaneous" and "arbitrary" speak for themselves - unexpected and incoherent).

Of course, in my practice there have been cases associated with an elementary misunderstanding of physiological processes and changes, when under the motto "pregnancy is not a disease", women simply did not notice important body signals. Often there were situations of destructive generic programs, when the idea of a difficult pregnancy and miscarriage was instilled by a mother-grandmother to a girl from childhood (… in our family there are all women …), and she, in turn, simply subconsciously performed a “kind” program, without any physiological indications for this. Fear of complications in childbirth, fear for the development of fetal abnormalities, etc. - all of this was encountered, like many other things, including household, intra-family problems and a conflict in relationships. However, as noted above, I can say that the idea that a mother provokes the death of the fetus with her thoughts is destructive and unprovable at this stage in the development of psychosomatic science! This belief hinders effective work with the therapist. Often to look for secret meanings where they do not exist, we are provoked by the same desire to take control over death, but the sooner we give up this, the better our path of restoration will go.

At first glance, this may seem like an insignificant remark. So far, we are not talking about the habitual miscarriage, since an attempt to control the environment, including the processes that are beyond our control, in fact takes away a lot of both physical and mental resources from the body. The greater the fear of loss = the higher the desire to take control over it = the stronger the stress = the more difficult the stress factor affecting the body. Anyone who has encountered the management of such pregnant women knows that in addition to hormonal support, they are usually prescribed antispasmodics and various kinds of sedatives. In critical periods (the terms at which there were previous abortions), the expectant mother is prescribed complete physical and mental rest (often associated with hospitalization, if it is not even more stressful for the woman). The influence of the stress factor (in combination with hormonal imbalance, which provokes additional anxiety, fear, etc.) is such a well-studied and proven fact that measures to eliminate it have been introduced into treatment protocols in almost all developed countries.

Quite often it happens that a detailed analysis of psychosomatic cases associated with habitual miscarriage (more than 3 in a row) shows that often the very fear of relapse and anxiety are the only real causes of relapse … For example, when the girl had an arbitrary abortion for the first time, the cause was an infection (or a side effect of the drug that was previously well tolerated by the patient) = a physical cause, it was eliminated. But the experienced emotions (hormonal imbalance), difficult memories, traumatic experiences that left an imprint and information in the body itself remained unworked. Then the girl becomes pregnant again, there is no physical reason, as in the previous case (infection or drug), but fear remains, body memory of critical periods, etc. And it turns out that there is no objective reason for an arbitrary abortion, but overstrain of the mental and physical resources, provoke excessive tone, hormonal imbalance and new loss. The situation becomes more complicated when, in addition to the psychophysiological component, the cognitive component is also added (negative psychological attitudes, false beliefs, stereotypes, destructive programs, etc.). Thus, in the context of psychosomatics, with no identified organic pathology, work with a psychotherapist is aimed precisely at leveling the experiences associated with previous unsuccessful experiences, at reducing anxiety and searching for and analyzing those very attitudes that could aggravate the psychological and physical state of the pregnant woman.

For each individual case, its own directions and nuances of psychotherapeutic work are distinguished, however, the following can be distinguished in common for all:

1. Taking care of the body … The combination of physical and psychological stress drives the grieving person into a state of deep exhaustion. In order to prevent the development of psychosomatic disorders and diseases, a woman who has experienced a spontaneous abortion needs to organize all the conditions for normal sleep, rest, a varied diet, walks in the fresh air, etc. Since they often neglect this, confident, unobtrusive support is important loved ones. The hormonal imbalance caused by the termination of pregnancy can not only cause disturbances in perception, memory, thinking, etc., but also undermine the normal functioning of the body as a whole. Therefore, it is important to monitor physical health and maximize the restoration of hormonal balance using available methods (food, sleep, walks, etc.)

2. Emotional support … Often many people around do not understand the depth of the problem of losing an "unborn" baby - "what to grieve about if nothing has happened yet." However, even if the pregnancy was interrupted early, the woman loses not only faith in herself, not only the meaning of the near future, she also loses the “New World” that she created in her imagination, in which she lived in dreams and which sought to translate into reality. He was part of her life and now he is gone too. Therefore, the loss of pregnancy at any time deserves to be mourned, spoken and accepted. Strong emotions (hormones) that have not found a way out of the body disrupt metabolism and can lead to various post-operative gynecological complications. Therefore, it is important, instead of the usual “well, everything, don't cry - it’s bad for you, you will recover and give birth to another”, on the contrary, to give the opportunity to mourn your loss, no matter how minimal its significance may seem to us, and not to rush the woman to replace the feeling of loss with a new pregnancy, because … this can heighten the anxiety and provoke the threat of interruption. In the case of a habitual miscarriage, it is better to seek help from specialists to provide support at different levels, including information.

3. Mastering progressive relaxation techniques … Despite the fact that we all know how and love to relax, not many people know how to relax with benefit. Relaxation techniques (dynamic meditations, autogenic training, etc.) help more than just recovery. When planning the next pregnancies, a woman who has mastered relaxation techniques can significantly help herself to cope with physical stress, increased tone, etc. Also, special relaxation techniques help to correct the so-called clamps, blocks and other individual physical problems that the body remembers in connection with an interruption. pregnancy.

4. Mastering techniques and exercises for working with obsessive thoughts. As well as body relaxation, it is important for women who have experienced a spontaneous abortion to learn to take control of the negative thoughts that they tend to drive in a circle, thereby increasing anxiety in situations where it has no place.

5. Working out with a specialist the revealed destructive beliefs … Starting from the search, analysis and correction of all kinds of phobias, fears, anxieties and experiences, which are important not just to "drive away" from oneself, in fact, hammering deep into the depths, but to level them so that they do not lead to physical stress, tone, disturbance of oxygen metabolism and etc. Finishing with the philosophical concept of motherhood, tk. in the modern world there are already quite a lot of conflicting theories of upbringing, fears and anxiety before which also negatively affect the state of the body of the expectant mother. I draw your attention to the word “ philosophical", Because it is important for each specific woman to find her own personal path of motherhood, and not be guided by how others have -" whether I can or cannot reach this level and higher "and so on.

6. Increased self-confidence. In situations of increasing spontaneous abortions, which become habitual, there is also a significant problem of reducing self-confidence, in their abilities (this is also individual, someone has a connection with motherhood and femininity, someone does not). Many people know that self-confidence is formed by a set of step-by-step achievements. But not many people know that in psychosomatics, the development of confidence through achievements in different areas leaves an imprint on the level of physiology. In working with our clients, due to the peculiarities of the lifestyle that they have to follow in connection with the threat of termination of pregnancy, we choose to improve skills that do not require exorbitant emotional investment and physical strength. They are selected individually, according to the capabilities and interests of each woman, however, you should not mentally limit yourself to knitting or embroidery, some of my clients, living the path of “preserving pregnancy”, discovered themselves in programming, journalism, etc. It is just important to find exactly what helps a particular woman, and having identified the essential details of any of the processes, you can create something of your own - an individual tool.

7. Development of a mental resource - because there are things, deeds and events that are not subject to our influence and control. Without the help of a specialist, the minimum that can be done is to create a list of everything that brings you pleasure, periodically supplement it, and every day perform at least one of the items on this list.

The introspection exercise described in my article on Self-Love can also be helpful

In the case when a spontaneous abortion leads to sterility, false pregnancy, depression, suicidal thoughts and other psychological disorders, it may be necessary to consult a psychiatrist and drug therapy, in combination with work with a psychosomatics specialist or a medical psychologist.