Fathers' mental health outcomes resulting from a partner experiencing a miscarriage

Abstract

The topic of this project is fathers' mental health outcomes resulting from a partner experiencing a miscarriage. The problem is that there is alleged deterioration of fathers' mental health after a miscarriage. The purpose of this project was to explore how fathers' mental health is affected by experiencing a miscarriage. The criteria used to select articles for inclusion in this project was searching for keywords in databases through Tennessee Tech's EagleSearch and Google Scholar. The keywords used were fathers, miscarriage, and mental health. Articles that didn't include keywords selected or were outdated were excluded. The participants in the reviewed articles were fathers from around the world whose partners had suffered a miscarriage. Major findings from existing research were 1. the fathers were able to accept the miscarriage but struggled with feeling helpless, 2. there were depressive symptoms in the fathers' post miscarriage, and 3. there were many negative feelings that occurred including feelings of isolation and not wanting to be a burden. These findings support the notion that the mental health of fathers after a miscarriage is just as important and should be addressed when the event occurs. It is important for there to be more research done surrounding this topic as there is still not a lot of information out there. As professionals there needs to be a sense of urgency to help these fathers that have experienced a miscarriage.