Columbia, MO (KMOX) - Men who have lost a child through miscarriage often describe their role as "guard" or "repairman".
A new University of Missouri study examines how these men used metaphors to cope with the experience.
"The repairman metaphor really focused in on men saying all I wanted to do is fix it," explains Communication Professor Dr. Haley Kranstuber Horstman, "I wanted to make it better for my wife, I wanted her to feel better, I wanted her to not necessarily have to deal with peole asking her questions or wondering why she wasn't pregnant anymore."
Horstman and her co-authors -- Amanda Holman and Chad McBride at Creighton University -- interviewed 45 men for the study. Some said it was the most they had talked about the miscarriage experience. They described miscarriage as the "loss of a gift" and "cataclysmic" event. Horstman says many men push their own emotions aside to help their partner, but are privately suffering.
Horstman says she hopes results of the study will encourage couples to "co-cope" with their loss together.