Pregnancy loss is a serious biopsychosocial-spiritual issue that impacts millions of couples and families every year. Approximately 1 in 4 known pregnancies and up to 75% of all conceptions end in loss, with the highest percentage of losses occurring at or prior to 20 weeks gestation. These early pregnancy losses are called miscarriages. Despite the prevalence of this type of loss, relatively little research has been done or cultural recognition given to the impact of miscarriage on individuals, couples, and families. As a result, those who experience miscarriage and other pregnancy losses often feel like their loss is unimportant and their subsequent grief is not permissible. Additionally, because miscarriage and pregnancy loss are typically considered women’s issues, male partners are often excluded from research and discussions about this type of loss. This lack of curiosity about and attention to the male partner’s experience after miscarriage has contributed to a double disenfranchisement of their grief.

This explanatory sequential mixed methods research study used both quantitative and qualitative methods to learn more about how religious/spiritual (R/S) coping and perceived social support impacted the male partner’s grief after miscarriage. In Stage 1 of this study, 44 male participants took a series of assessments, including a demographics questionnaire, the Perinatal Grief Scale (PGS), the Brief Religious Coping Scale (Brief RCOPE), and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS). Correlational analyses were used to analyze the data, and significant relationships were identified between negative religious coping and total score on the PGS (r = .482, p = .001), negative religious coping and the active grief subscale (r = .449, p = .003), and negative religious coping and the despair subscale (r = .468, p = .002). This indicates that as negative religious coping increased, overall grief, active grief, and despair also increased. Results from the Stage 1 correlational analyses were used to create the Stage 2 qualitative interview questions. In Stage 2, a subset of the Stage 1 participants (n = 16) was interviewed. These interviews were transcribed and analyzed. One overarching global theme of “Expectation vs. Reality” and three interrelated main themes of “R/S Beliefs,” “Social Support,” and “Socio-Cultural Influence” were identified, each with subthemes. The interrelated nature of the Stage 2 results along with the relationships between variables identified in the Stage 1 data suggested that R/S coping and perceptions of social support do impact the male partner’s grief after miscarriage and that this impact is systemic and relational in essence. Clinical implications for systemic therapists, specifically Medical Family Therapists, are provided, along with suggestions for future miscarriage research.