Men’s Use of Metaphors to Make Sense of Their Spouse’s Miscarriage: Expanding the Communicated Sense-Making Model

Abstract

With approximately 20 % of pregnancies ending in loss, miscarriage is a relatively common and stressful occurrence. Because romantic partners' coping efforts are intimately connected, the way one partner copes with the other's miscarriage has important implications for individual and relational well-being. Grounded in the communicated sense-making (CSM) model, the current study investigated how cis-gender men in heterosexual marriages (<i>n</i> = 45) communicatively constructed the meaning of their wife's miscarriage through metaphors. Analysis of interview data revealed two supra-themes-metaphors of miscarriage and metaphors of men's role as a husband. Metaphors of <i>lost gift, cataclysm, death of a loved one, emptiness</i>, and <i>chaotic movement</i> animated husbands' CSM about their wife's miscarriage. Men drew upon discourses of masculinity to make sense of their role as a husband in the miscarriage process as a <i>rock, guard, repair man</i>, and <i>secondary character</i>. We explore these findings in light of the master narrative of birth and propose an expansion of the CSM model to include metaphors as a key CSM device.