When you miscarry or lose a child while you're pregnant, the pain can be so bad. This is also true because each person has a different experience with miscarriage. One person may be able to relate to something that another person doesn't. But books about miscarriage and pregnancy loss can still make you feel less alone and help you find more resources to help you get over your loss and move on.

In order to make it easier for you to find what you need, I've broken this list into three parts: fiction books, nonfiction books, and books for kids that can help with miscarriage and pregnancy loss. A note about the books in this list: They talk about miscarriage, infertility, infant death, and stillbirth. When possible, I have added content warnings next to individual books.

Fiction Book About Miscarriage

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

Before Tom and Isabel were married, they had two miscarriages and one stillbirth. Then they found a child floating in a rowboat with a dead man. Isabel wants to claim the child as her own and hide how she found them. Even though she and Tom and feel compelled to report the body, Isabel wants to keep how she found them a secret. For the couple and a stranger they meet soon after moving to the mainland, the consequences of this decision start to show up.

The End of Miracles by Monica Starkman

Warning: suicidal thoughts are in this text.

The End of Miracles is written by a psychiatrist who talks about how the trauma of miscarriage can have a long-term effect on people's minds. Margo Keber and her husband tried for a long time to get pregnant, even though they had problems getting pregnant. Her heart goes out to her when she has a late-term miscarriage. Margo is taken to the hospital after falling into a severe depression. The psychiatric treatment she gets can't help her deal with her overwhelming grief.

The Library at the Edge of the World by Felicity Hayes-McCoy

Warning: infidelity is in the text.

Hanna Casey, a librarian, found out that her husband had been cheating on her years after she had a miscarriage. It doesn't matter how much her job takes her to small Irish villages. She can't get rid of her sadness or the tension she has had with her mother. But when her library is going to be shut down, she finds a group of people to help her save it.

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

Jack and Mabel, a married couple, move to Alaska after having a stillbirth that makes them feel hopeless. First, there was a lot of snow. Then, they built a snow child. The next day, they found that the child had come to life and had been given a name: Faina.

These two become close to this magical child, and they start seeing her as their own daughter. That said, the Alaskan woods can be very unpredictable. Faina may not be what she seems to be.

The Day of the Duchess by Sarah MacLean

Warning: infidelity is in the text.

 

Duke Malcolm Bevingstoke wants to get back together with his estranged wife Seraphina. If she helps him move on, he will leave her life for good. Malcolm comes up with a new plan when the two are together again and have to face the pain of their shared past. He wants to help her heal her emotional wounds, earn her trust, and ask for her forgiveness.

5 Nonfiction Books About Miscarriage

The Miscarriage Map: What To Expect When You Are No Longer Expecting by Sunita Osborn

For her work with miscarriage and pregnancy loss, Dr. Sunita Osborn is well known. During The Miscarriage Map, Dr. Osborn talks about a lot of things that couples deal with after having a miscarriage, like how pregnancy loss affects a relationship, how to deal with the emotional grief, and how to look at your body after a miscarriage.

Waves by Ingrid Chabbert and Carole Maurel

They are two women who have had problems getting pregnant for a long time and then lose their babies at birth. The book is called Waves. As they work through their grief, they try to rebuild their relationship even though they may not be able to have another child.

I Had a Miscarriage: A Memoir, a Movement by Jessica Zucker

Jessica Zucker, a reproductive mental health psychologist, lost her baby at 16 weeks. When she was going through her own grief, she saw that there was a need to change the way pregnancy loss is often shamed and kept quiet. In her memoir, Dr. Zucker encourages people who have miscarried to speak their truth and to deal with their grief as a group.

What God Is Honored Here? Writings on Miscarriage by and for Native Women and Women of Color Edited by Shannon Gibney and Kao Kalia Yang

In Whose honor is this place? In this video, indigenous women and women of color talk about their miscarriage and pregnancy loss stories with each other. Among the main points of this anthology is the fact that miscarriages are more common for women of color and other groups that are less well-known in the US. These essays talk about body image, religious and cultural identity, and personal empowerment for women of color who have lost a child.

An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination by Elizabeth McCracken

The author Elizabeth McCracken was surprised to find love and marriage in her 30s, even though at the time, she thought she was a "spinster." After nine months of pregnancy, she found out that her unborn child had died. In this memoir, she talks about her grief after having a late-term miscarriage, as well as how to keep going after losing a child and how to move on.

5 Picture Books That Can Help Children Understand Miscarriage

Perfectly Imperfect Family by Amie Lands and Natia Gogiashvili.

They remember and celebrate their dead sister, who was born before he was born, in the book Perfectly Imperfect Family. If you want to talk to your kids about having a miscarriage in a way that honors and remembers the unborn child, this picture book might be right for you.

Something Happened by Cathy Blanford and Phyllis Childers

After her family has a miscarriage, a young boy is very sad about not having a brother or sister. In the end, he and his family find ways to deal with his grief and remember the unborn child. This picture book was written by a nurse who has cared for grieving children for more than 20 years. It can help you talk about miscarriage with a child.

Always My Twin by Valerie R. Samuels and Najah Clemmons

On the advice of the author, Always My Twin tells the story of a little girl who lost her twin soon after they were born. When a child loses a twin, this book can be a big help to the family.

Where Do They Go? by Julia Alvarez and Sabra Field

Because this book is about grief, not pregnancy loss, Where Do They Go? Can help children deal with their feelings after a family has had a miscarriage. To help children understand death and loss, this picture book is both lyrical and comforting.

Ladder to the Moon by Maya Soetoro-Ng and Yuyi Morales

Picture book Suhaila wants to meet her Grandma Annie, who died long before she was born. Suhaila is a little girl who dreams about meeting her Grandma Annie. Grandma Annie and her granddaughter have a special time together one night when a golden ladder comes out of the ground and lets them go up. The book Ladder to the Moon can help children who have lost a sibling.

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