Empty Arms: Hope and Support for Those Who Have Suffered a Miscarriage, Stillbirth, or Tubal Pregnancy

This book is written by a licensed counselor that lost her baby at 20 weeks, resulting in an unsuccessful induction and ultimately a D&C. She includes encouragement for mothers with similar stories and includes stories from other parents as well. The emotional advice is sound, if a little cliché. She outlines the grief process and give some tips on dealing with grief like getting involved in things, eating right, journaling ect. It is very much from a pastor's perspective. Its evident she received a lot of support from her church and often references how her husband and herself leaned on their counseling training while dealing with their own grief. The parts I didn't like were the medical information. Its very out of date. For example, the ectopic pregnancy (tubal) story includes an experience from a mother in the 1970's. Having experienced surgery for ectopic pregnancy in 2020, its a different experience now. Even the induction that the writer herself experienced is different from the process now. So the emotions and grief process is similar and relevant but the medical information isn't as reliable. I found the journal written to accompany this book is much more helpful and works well as a stand alone journal (you don't need to read the book to use the journal- purchased separately).

My husband and I were so excited to find out that we were pregnant. We were on top of the world! 1.5 weeks later my husband took me into the ER with severe cramping and our worst nightmare came true. I am 28 years old and recently had an ectopic pregnancy. I had a less than 2% chance of having one and I still have not found a "risk factor". I was "fortunate" to not have had surgery and be able to take methotextrate. After the news and medicine, I couldn't sleep at night and on one of those tearful nights, I was searching for a book to help me understand why I felt like I was going crazy! I highly recommend this book as it helped me validate and understand my thoughts and emotions through this whole process. I had a few people say some hurtful and stupid things and this book made me realize that this happens often and how to deal with them as they come. It also helped to understand that others have gone through it and how God is present in the process. I am still in the healing process but this book helped me mourn the loss of our baby and to understand that God is always present and that there is hope. I hope this book helps you as much as it has helped me.

My daughter was stillborn at 38 weeks. In these months since her passing, it has been hard to find a book or resource that could come to my level of hurt and anguish. This book was such a blessing to me. Not only did it validate how I was feeling from experience but it reassured me of truths that I had forgotten. After such a traumatic event, it is easy to slip into a depressive state and believe lies from the enemy. This book brought me such comfort and hope and reminded me that God is walking with me through this tragedy and he is carrying me. He is my source of hope and peace. I would recommend this book to any mother who has had a miscarriage or stillbirth. God will carry your burdens if you just come to him.

Hard to rate this, since content is so subjective. I originally purchased this for my son and daughter-in-law following their miscarriage. However, I ended up returning it after reading just a few pages. It was written from much more of a conservative, Christian perspective than fits our spiritual perspective than the product description offered. This may be just right for some folks, just not us.

If you are needing spirtual guidance to get through the emotional roller coaster you are one from the loss of a baby, this is a great book. The author shares her personal experience and uses scripture from the Bible to help work through emotions. This wasn't necessarily what I found I needed at the time. I found more comfort in hearing several people share their stories as testimony you can survive through the horrible experience whether you think so or not at that time. I also agree with other posters that the book is probably best for someone ASAP and early in their grieving.

I already read this book 1 time, and I will probably read it again to capture certain info that I didn't catch the first time through. I love and appreciate how Pam uses her experience and other people's experiences of different pregnancy loss to reach mothers that have gone through different situations it really helped me after losing our son and it seemed that when I went to a new chapter, it was the exact thing I was experiencing so it pushed me to read even more. I also love her biblical references that helped me build more faith that I had.

Over the years I have given away dozens of this book! It was the first one which spoke comfort into my hurting heart, written by someone who had navigated the rough waters before me. When you recognize the life lost--but nobody else around you does--it is difficult to process the grief (both real emotions and hormonal changes) associated with the EMPTY ARMS of miscarriage or infertility.There is such comfort in knowing that someone else survived the tsunamis of turmoil which descend so abruptly. I'm grateful EMPTY ARMS is being republished. Lots of women need it. . .will need it.

I read this book twice through and then passed it on to another who had a recent loss. It puts words to what the heart feels and gives an allowance for all the thoughts, emotions, and spiritual shift that might occur following a loss. The journey to healing is long and this book helps you process it.

I chose this book as it was highly recommended by my friend. Unfortunately she did not realize that my friend who had very similaepr experiences, is not a Christian. Quite the contrary.whilst, being a Christian myselfOf would have found this book very helpful, the sound advice the author gave became non existent because of the Christian references. However, I know it would be a very helpful book for those who believe in a loving and caring God.

This is an excellent book on the topic of stillbirth and pregnancy loss, written from a Christian perspective.I thoroughly recommend it, and found the chapters informative and useful.

I loved how the author uses scripture to explain our loss, provide comfort and reassures us that our baby is in Heaven with Jesus and all our loved ones who preceded us. This provided me with some much needed insight into my grief and gave me hope that one day we will be reunited in Heaven. My child is safe from all suffering and is waiting for me.

Contains true sad stories inside.

Easy read. Author identifies with the sufferer and provides very encouraging insights