Women Can Now Access Free Miscarriage Counselling

Around one in four pregnancies ends in miscarriage. Arguably, that rate is much higher as these statistics only include the pregnancies that have been confirmed by a doctor. Regardless of how common miscarriage is, each miscarriage is a significant loss for the woman who was pregnant. There is also a veil of silence around miscarriage partly due to what some consider to be an out-dated 12-week rule. Pink Elephant Peer Support have just launched a program that offers support and counselling to women experiencing miscarriage.

The Pink Elephant Peer Support Program

While some women are offered counselling by their care-giver, this is not always the case. Those that do undertake counselling, it is at their own cost. But now the Pink Elephant Peer Support Program (PSP) has been launched to support women through their loss. The peer support program is set up in a way that connects women who are experiencing pregnancy loss with ambassadors that have also experienced it, so understand the entire spectrum of feelings and responses.

PSP Has Launched

The program launched on the 18th June 2018 and “has been created so that women who are currently experiencing miscarriage and pregnancy loss, can be connected with another woman who has been there before…who ‘gets it’.” The Pink Elephant Support Network was set up by three women, Samantha Payne, Gabbi Armstrong and Rachel Haywood, who recognised that there was a major gap in support services for women experiencing pregnancy loss, particularly early miscarriage, and fertility.

People That Understand

Co-founder, Samantha Payne, said their aim was to provide an independent support person to help support and validate the experience of pregnancy loss. Having experienced pregnancy loss herself, Samantha understands the isolation that often results from pregnancy loss, and was motivated to find a way to fill the void of support for women.

What The Support Looks Like

Through the PSP women are offered six 30-minute sessions of personalised peer support, providing a safe space to share their feelings of grief and loss with a woman that has been through the same. The peer support workers were trained by Terry Diamond, a bereavement counsellor who works at the Royal Hospital for Women, and as a private practitioner. His training covered counselling skills, grief theory, miscarriage basics, boundaries and marking a pregnancy loss.

For further information on the Peer Support Program, you can visit the website. There are a host of downloadable resources, as well as information on how to apply for support through the PSP.