Memorable Messages Embedded in Men’s Stories of Miscarriage: Extending Communicated Narrative Sense-Making and Memorable Message Theorizing

ABSTRACT

Miscarriage occurs in roughly one in five pregnancies in the United States. Although it is largely considered a “women’s issue,” non-miscarrying spouses also endure the mental and relational health effects of the loss. Drawing on communicated narrative sense-making (CNSM) theory, we interviewed heterosexual, cisgender, mostly white, married men (n = 45) to solicit their stories of their spouse’s miscarriage. Six types of memorable messages (i.e., messages that affect the values, behaviors and/or beliefs of the receiver) from social network members emerged – have faith, brush it off, this (pain) is your fault, silence, I’m so sorry, and this happens a lot. These messages illuminate the importance of context in memorable message meaning-making; highlight the complexity of “message gaps” in narratively processing difficulty; and uncover ethical issues with attending to men’s experiences with miscarriage. We explore how these findings inform memorable messages theorizing and research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Although gender and sexual orientation diversity was lacking in the sample, we do believe that the experience of miscarriage in queer communities is likely substantially different than that of heterosexual partners, and thus this population deserves its own consideration.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Creighton University [Haddix Presidents’ Faculty Fund].