'Incredibly Courageous': Psychologist Says Chrissy Teigen Helping To End Miscarriage Stigma
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — In her most recent Instagram post, model and cookbook author Chrissy Teigen shared the heartbreaking news that she and her husband, singer John Legend, lost their third child.
"We are shocked and in the kind of deep pain you only hear about, the kind of pain we've never felt before," she wrote.
Dr. Jessica Zucker, a psychologist specializing in reproductive and maternal mental health, said Tiegen sharing her story on social media was incredibly brave.
"Speaking one's vulnerabilities and one's pain publicly, particularly when you have a spotlight on you, is incredibly courageous," she said.
Zucker, who has been working with patients who have lost pregnancies for the past 15 years, said her passion comes from her own experience losing a child at 16 weeks several years ago. She said Teigen, who has kept her 32 million followers updated throughout her pregnancy journey, was helping to break the social stigma and shame surrounding miscarriages by speaking out.
"It's time that we change the antiquated silence that we've been living in surrounding this topic because it's not going anywhere," Zucker said. "If 1 in 4 pregnancies result in miscarriage, and 1 in 100 in still births, this is common."
And while Zucker said Teigen's photos may be triggering for women who have suffered miscarriages, she believes it can be helpful in dealing with grief after losing a wanted pregnancy.
"That, I think, is the human experience," she said. "When we can be vulnerable and connect in those places, we feel seen, we feel understood, we feel normalized."
Zucker said the overwhelming outpour of love Tiegen has received on social media could help her find a sense of community and support.
"I hope what this does for women out there is really shore up the idea that anything can happen to any of us, and that it's never something that you did or didn't do, that it is a not a fault of your own," Zucker said.
October is Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness Month. Zucker said she hopes Teigen's story will help other women open up about their own losses and find healing.
