Table of Contents
ToggleThe article may contain affiliate links.
Pregnancy loss, miscarriage, or neonatal loss can be traumatic, life-altering experiences that are tough to truly understand unless you have been there. When someone else puts words to that unexplainable feeling, it can feel like your pain has been acknowledged.
We’ve gathered words related to grief and loss—many from people who have experienced the loss of a pregnancy— and hope you see your truth or find comfort in some of these words.
Trying to Describe Loss
“I held you every second of your life.” — Stephanie Paige Cole from Still: A Collection of Honest Artwork and Writings from the Heart of a Grieving Mother
“Baby loss =
A million what ifs
A billion if onlys
A trillion I wishes”
Zoe Clark-Coates
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside of you.” — Maya Angelou
When you carry a life and it’s there, and then gone, a part of your soul dies. Forever. — Casey Wiegano
I didn’t want to kiss you goodbye was the trouble. I wanted to kiss you goodnight, and there’s a lot of difference. — Ernest Hemingway
“Before I carried the pain, I carried you. And in my heart, I carry you still.” — Unknown
“Any woman who’d ever lost a child knew of the hollowness that remained within the soul.” ― Brittainy C. Cherry in Disgrace
“What does a miscarriage feel like? It feels as if you have been short-changed by nature. You will cry for what might have been but nobody will understand because they didn’t feel it.” — Unknown
Strength From Loss
“We are not broken by our tragedy, our loss, our miscarriages, but made stronger by what we learn from them.” — Dr. Lora Shahine in Not Broken: An Approachable Guide to Miscarriage & Recurrent Pregnancy Loss
“Pregnancy loss is not a disease that can be cured; it’s not going anywhere—it is, in fact, a normative outcome of pregnancy. And it is, therefore, a topic we would benefit from engaging in candid and integrating into everyday conversations, devoid of silence, stigma, and shame.” — Dr. Jessica Zucker from I Had a Miscarriage
Words of Sympathy
“A mother is not defined by the children she can see, but by the love she holds in her heart.” — Franchesca Cox
“There is a unique pain that comes from preparing a place in your heart for a child that never comes.” — David Platt
Words of Comfort
“A life need not to be long-lived for it to be meaningful.” — Unknown
“There is no foot too small that it cannot leave an imprint on this world.” — Unknown
“Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart.” — A.A. Milne in Winnie the Pooh
“How very softly you tiptoed into our world, almost silently, only a moment you stayed. But what an imprint your footsteps have left upon our hearts.” — Dorothy Ferguson
“I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always, as long as I’m living, my baby you’ll be.” — Robert Munsch in I’ll Love you Forever
“Even those that never fully blossom bring beauty into the world.” — Unknown
You were but a drop of rain to the eye but managed to flood my heart with love during your brief time with us. — Amy Hoover
Moving Forward From Loss
“The way forward is through, not around.” — A McDonald Ace, C. Starr, A.N. Bourbonnais in Through, Not Around: Stories of Infertility and Pregnancy Loss
“Some things cannot be fixed; they can only be carried. Grief like yours, love like yours, can only be carried.” — Megan Devine
“Sometimes we don’t want to heal because the pain is the last link to what we’ve lost.” — JM Storm
“You never arrived in my arms, but you will never leave my heart.” — Zoe Clark-Coates
“Grief is not a sign of weakness, nor a lack of faith… it is the price of love.” — Elizabeth I
“Some say you’re too painful to remember. I say you’re too precious to forget.” — Unknown
“You didn’t do anything to cause your loss. There is nothing you did, didn’t do, or could have done differently to prevent it. As you will continue to learn, the loss of pregnancy and the death of a baby are not discretionary; it can happen to anyone. It just happened to you. — Joey Miller in Rebirth
“I am done trying to reason with it. For now, at least. There is no reason. There is nothing to understand. There is no could-have or should-have because there is only what is.” — Nora McInerney in It’s Okay to Laugh (Crying Is Cool Too)