Content Warning: Jessica gets really candid about her miscarriage experience in this episode. Not everyone is in a place where they can listen to a story about pregnancy loss, and that's completely understandable.. If you're not, it's okay. You can skip to 17 minutes 15 seconds and still get a lot out of this episode. 

​​"I think we should let grief change us. I'm not into the idea of silver linings. I'm not into trying to, ‘get back to who we were before.’ I just let it all rush over me."

In this episode of Grief'd Up, host Rebecca Feinglos welcomes Dr. Jessica Zucker, author of "I Had a Miscarriage: A Memoir, A Movement" and "Normalize It: Upending the Silent Stigma and Shame That Shape Women's Lives," whose personal tragedy built a global movement for normalizing conversations about loss. Jessica thought she understood pregnancy loss until she experienced a traumatic 16-week miscarriage alone at home. The gap between professional knowledge and lived experience felt isolating.

Friends offered well-meaning but painful platitudes: "At least you have a healthy child," "At least you have a thriving career." Jessica realized that our collective discomfort with loss creates a toxic cycle where silence breeds stigma, stigma breeds shame, and shame keeps people suffering alone. This led to her "I Had a Miscarriage" campaign and two books challenging how we talk about difficult experiences.

The conversation tackles practical territory: How do you celebrate a sister's pregnancy while grieving your own struggles getting pregnant? What's the difference between "normalizing" and "getting back to normal"? Rebecca and Jessica explore the messy realities of grief in relationships, the courage required to start talking about hard things (even in Instagram comments), and why avoiding someone who's grieving can make them feel worse.

Join Rebecca and Jessica as they debunk the myths surrounding grief and explain why allowing loss to change us is essential, because there’s no going back to who we were before. And that’s ok.

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