“Answers a real need in the Church,” “I learned quite a bit,” “priests would definitely benefit,” “when this gets published, share the link with me so I can purchase it and recommend it to my brother priests” – These are all statements I have heard from the Catholic priests who have read my new miscarriage book for priests; Donum Dignitatis: The Catholic’s Guide to Miscarriage.
When I lost my first baby in 2010, I remember walking through my church parking lot. I saw my priest and began to ask him for some advice on my miscarriage. The most he provided (which was a Godsend), was that I should remember/celebrate this baby’s life. He also said I needed to pray for a name for this baby. This is written about in my first book, All That is Seen and Unseen: A Journey Through a First Trimester Miscarriage. He provided no other significant information. This was likely because he didn’t have a full understanding of what I was enduring or even what I needed.
Why I Wrote These Books
After I wrote my first book, people reached out to me about their experiences. This led me on the path to helping people physically, emotionally, and informationally through their pregnancy losses. I did this for many years and gained much experience and knowledge about the process of pregnancy and infant loss. Gradually, I began to help doctors offices with their poor execution of handling miscarriage.
Miscarriage is usually treated as a medical event and nothing more. Yet many women suffer not just emotionally, but physically and even doctors weren’t helping them with the physical pain. Doctors would just tell them, “you’ll experience a heavy period.” It didn’t matter what gestation they were at when the loss occurred. Miscarriage is the term used for pregnancy loss up until 20 weeks gestation. In the UK, miscarriage is up to 24 weeks gestation. Delivering a 19-week baby is definitely not “a heavy period.”
Miscarriage Book for Doctors
Seeing how many doctors responded to women enduring pregnancy loss, I wrote the book, It’s Not Just a Heavy Period; The Miscarriage Handbook. Doctors give the book to their patients at the time of miscarriage. It is an easy-to-read handbook and takes pressure off doctors to explain the process of miscarriage to their patients. This book was a secular book, fully edited, and vetted by several doctors and nurses for clarity and content.
As I began my reversion back to the Catholic faith, I had another pregnancy loss (2015). This loss was better because I received more information about how to handle the process. I had a Catholic midwife helping me through that loss. What I discovered was peace and comfort that I didn’t have with my first loss. There were many small and simple things that significantly helped me.
Catholic Miscarriage
In 2020, I decided to embark on writing a miscarriage book for priests. In the same way I wrote a handbook for doctors, I wanted the miscarriage book for priests to take the pressure off of priests needing to know everything there is that women endure in pregnancy loss. The miscarriage book for priests needed to be clear and concise. The book also needed to be free from moral and doctrinal error. Because of this, I sought and gained the Imprimatur.
When priests provide pastoral care to their parishioners enduring pregnancy loss, they now have a book Donum Dignitatis: The Catholic’s Guide to Miscarriage. Priests who utilize this book will be providing more than physical and emotional support, they will be giving women a spiritual gift to help them in the suffering they will ultimately have to endure. There is no way around it but the miscarriage book for priests can help provide some peace and comfort not only to the woman enduring the loss, but for the priest who can be confident the information is true to church teaching.
The Miscarriage Guide for Catholics
There is no other book on the market specifically for Catholics to be a guide on miscarriage. I hear often from women that their priests gave them conflicting information about miscarriage. This always makes me sad. This isn’t the priests fault, there is no guide that priests receive in seminary. For many new priests, their first encounter with grief is usually a parishioner experiencing miscarriage. My ultimate goal for this miscarriage book is utilization in the seminary. It is short and simple, very easy to read, and explains both the physical and spiritual aspects of miscarriage.
The priests who have reached out to me after reading this book shared that they had no idea how much is involved in miscarriage. This books gives priests that information and they can be confident the book is true to the Magesterium. Women desire this kind of support from their priests. The miscarriage book for priests is here!